


Inviting The Fire

by AHS



Series: Inviting The Fire [1]
Category: Actor RPF, Queer as Folk (US) RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, M/M, Multi, Theatre, Threesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-24
Updated: 2007-12-07
Packaged: 2017-10-19 12:13:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 31,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/200735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AHS/pseuds/AHS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You can't invite the fire and then blame the burn.  AU where G/R meet in 2000 but in a different place, different way, and there is no QAF.  (See story tags for a hint as to more, but know that this is absolutely a Gale/Randy story. And I promise that the OFC is NOT a Mary Sue or a self-insert, lol.)</p><p>I'm reposting this!  I had an accidental orphaning mishap. *facepalm*  Apologies to those who took the time to leave kudos or comments before!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> RPF disclaimer: This never happened.
> 
> Some chapters contain content from the play "Dangerous Angels" by Scott C. Sickles.
> 
> This is my favorite fic of mine.

(early June 2000; Ithaca, NY)

  


“Gale, have you seen my emerald green pumps? The four-inch heels? The ones I wore to Serendipity’s fundraiser last week?”

“Yeah.”

“Where?”

“On your feet. Last week. At the fundraiser.”

Gale Harold heard his girlfriend’s frustration in the form of an overdramatic… she was an actress, after all… sigh. _Well?_ he thought, _She asked._ He finished brushing his teeth and spit a mouthful of minty foam into the sink, the sounds of items being flung about their closet filling the house. He leaned in the doorway to the bedroom, watching curiously.

“Dylan, why do you need those particular shoes for your audition? Do green four-inch heels define the character somehow?” he asked, only somewhat sarcastically.

“Not really. I just like them. And they’re lucky. If you’ll remember, I was wearing them the day I met you.” Dylan Walker stopped digging for a moment and turned to face Gale. “Hmm…”

“ _Hmm_ what?”

“That was almost a year ago. I think I either need new shoes or a new man, because one of you must be horribly out of style… Oh! Found them!” She held up the pumps in triumph.

“I take it you’re keeping those, so does that mean you’re getting rid of me?”

Slipping into her shoes, she sauntered up to him. Even elevated up to about 5’10”, she still had to look up. She gave him a deep, lingering kiss, grinning wickedly when she pulled back. “No. I’m not done playing with you yet… Mmm, peppermint.”

Gale laughed low in his throat. She really was like a cat playing with her dinner sometimes. “Down, girl. Let me get dressed and I’ll drive you. Ten minutes.”

*******

Gale’s truck pulled up outside the Serendipity Theatre. Dylan acted in all their shows, and he did a lot of carpentry and tech work. Auditions were being held that afternoon for their next play, _Dangerous Angels_.

“Here we are. Break a leg. Just don’t scuff up the stage too much in those shoes, please.”

“No, park and come in with me.”

“Why? You never want me to watch you audition.”

“I still don’t. But, last time, I gave my best audition yet. And I was wearing these shoes, _and_ you came in for a minute to ask Marty a question.”

Gale found himself parking, shaking his head all the while. “I don’t know what the fuck bullshit question I’m gonna ask Marty, but fine.”

He didn’t know why she was so superstitious. She was considered one of the theatre’s stars. Whatever part she wanted, she would get.

“Thank you. I‘m going to walk to the shops afterward, I think, so I’ll call when I’m done, okay?”

“Sure. I have to go take a look at that guy’s bike, anyway.”

Once they were inside, Gale gave Dylan a little squeeze and watched as she disappeared into the small crowd of twenty or so people. He then headed to the back to ask the stage manager how his kids were doing, feeling only slightly like an idiot. His assignment completed, he made his way back down the aisle that led into the theatre, stopping for a second right in front of the door. He waved in Dylan’s direction, though she was too busy concentrating on her script to notice, and felt that little twinge he always did at these, the one that made him think maybe he should be auditioning, too. But it was momentary, and he was just turning to leave, when…

:::WHAM:::

Someone came in from outside and crashed right into him. Gale reached out and ended up grabbing the smaller person by the waist to steady them.

“I am so sorry! I just burst in here like a crazy…”

The apology died on the young man’s lips as he raised his head and their eyes met. He watched the boy, who couldn’t have been more than about twenty, take him in with the clearest, gentlest blue eyes he’d ever seen… same shade as Dylan’s, but _not_ … and his generously drawn mouth hang open. Something unfurled in Gale’s stomach and he felt a bit dizzy, though he knew he hadn’t hit his head.

“It’s okay,” he managed to say, clearing his throat. “It was a stupid place to stand.” Gale realized he was still gripping the boy’s waist and suddenly dropped his hands, taking a long step back. “You all right?”

“Yeah, I… I’m fine. Thank you,” he said, pulling his backpack higher on his shoulder.

“No problem.”

“Am I late for the…?”

“No, you’re right on time. Break a leg, huh?” Gale maneuvered past this energetic body, putting a hand on the door.

“You’re not staying?” The boy ran a nervous hand through his short, dark blond hair and tugged at his T-shirt… which read “ _Will Work For Books_.”

“Nah. But if you’re gonna be spending any time at this theatre, you’ll see me.”

The formerly disappointed face lit up with the most brilliant smile. “Good. I hope so. Later.”

“Later.”

As Gale pushed through the door and walked away, he wondered why he was feeling a strange warmth in his chest, like he’d just swallowed some potent liquor. Then he thought some actual liquor didn’t sound like a bad idea.

As the young man made his way towards the stage, somehow less nervous about his purpose, he knew exactly why _he_ was feeling warm. He had just met the most beautiful man ever created. He had a new crush.

He couldn’t stop grinning as he pulled his headshot and resume out of his bag and handed them to a lady with a clipboard.

“Randy Harrison. I’m here for the audition.”


	2. Chapter One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rehearsal begins, G/R see each other again, and the three get properly introduced.

  


“What the fuck am I even doing here, Travis?” Gale held up the script with a tired laugh. “I’ve read the breakdown for this. You don’t need a carpenter to build you sets for a bare stage play.”

“True,” the director admitted. “There’s not really much for you to do this time around.”

Gale couldn’t help feeling disappointment. He loved putting together sets for a show, and moreover just spending time at the Serendipity. He stood up, stretching his legs, which were too long to be bunched up in those theatre seats, anyway. Time to go outside for a smoke, he figured. “Well, nice knowing you.”

“As far as carpentry goes, I meant. Gale, c’mon, there’s still lots you can do. _Dangerous Angels_ is a play where every scene change is made primarily through lighting. And, you may have noticed, our chief lighting designer and tech is something like eight months pregnant. The work she can do now is limited, and when she’s giving birth, we’ll just be getting close to opening. Think you could pitch in?”

“You’re lucky my talents are so wide-ranging,” Gale grinned, feeling he had a purpose again. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Good,” said Travis, standing and clapping Gale on the back. “I know you must like the chance to stay close to Dylan.”

“Yeah…” From their view at the back of the floor, Gale watched the stage. It was the first day of rehearsal. The play’s small cast - only five actors - had gathered and been at it for a couple of hours. Dylan was laughing and talking with two men and a woman, all of whom he knew, all older, and all of whom she’d worked with before. The fifth actor was a newbie, young… and though Gale didn’t exactly know him, they had met. He was looking a bit left out, off to the side, and overly studious with his script. Gale was just considering whether he should go up there, as a somewhat familiar face, and say hi, when Dylan beat him to it. He wished he could hear what they were saying, then realized that was a weird thought, and slipped backstage to see if his very pregnant lighting Yoda was anywhere around.

*****

“Hey, Randy,” said Dylan, like they were old friends. He looked at her curiously. “We met briefly at the audition. I thought you were great, by the way.”

“Thanks.” His smile was genuine. “You, too… Dylan.”

“Dylan Walker. I should have introduced myself properly before rehearsal, but there wasn’t any time, was there? Travis is a very enthusiastic director, and he likes to just jump right in!” It was June, and very warm, even inside the theatre. She scooped her dark hair up into a would-be ponytail and fanned the back of her neck with it. “I know it’s only the first day, but I think it’s going well.”

Randy nodded in agreement. “I’ve never done this play before. It’s really interesting.”

“I know. Everybody’s either gay or in love with their sibling,” she giggled. “I love it. It’s real, from the heart, fucked up family drama.”

“And you have a double role.”

Dylan tossed her hair. “Why yes, I was too much of a diva for just one.”

*****

Holly wasn’t there. He’d have to get initiated into the lighting crew later.

Gale found himself hidden in the wings, watching his girlfriend chat with his blond acquaintance. He was relieved to see that the young man looked more comfortable than before.

That was the thing about Dylan. She could put people at ease, or just as easily completely put them off. Luckily, she seemed to be using her powers for good at the moment.

Gale’s gaze kept drifting to the boy, whose name he still didn’t know. And he still couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but he knew they were discussing the play, their characters, that kind of shit. Just knew somehow that was what made the boy’s eyes light up like that.

It was nice.

*****

“Really, we should be friendly.” Dylan gave Randy’s arm a little squeeze. “We are playing an engaged couple. Even if the circumstances are unique, with both of them being gay and all… Shit, I love modern plays.”

Randy laughed. “I know. If I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t be doing this part. I usually like to stretch myself a bit more. And his name just _had_ to be Randy, too!”

Dylan noted the implication that the name was not the only similarity between Randy and his character, and that he was also gay. Not that she hadn’t already guessed that, but it was still good to know for sure. Honestly, she just enjoyed knowing too much about people’s business.

“Well, being engaged to me should be enough of a stretch for you,” she winked.

“True. Um, are we going to go over that scene again?”

She quirked her eyebrows. “Oh, honey, we’re done for the day.”

“What? But the director said, ‘Break.’”

“You have to understand Travis-speak. When he says, ‘Break for _life_ ,’ that means ‘Get back to yours, people!’”

“But nobody left…” Randy took a moment to glance around and realized the other three were now, in fact, gone. He felt rather stupid. “Oh… fuck. Guess I should go.”

“It’s okay if you like it here, you know. My boyfriend always has to drag me away, and he’s almost as addicted to this place as I am.”

Randy stuffed his script into his bookbag, halfway listening as he checked his watch and determined how much time he had to get to work. “He an actor, too?”

“Gale? God, no. I got myself a man who’s good with his _hands_.”

Her wicked tone got his full attention, and he answered with a toothy grin. “Good for you.”

“You should meet him. He’s around here somewhere… Gale, where are you?” Dylan called out, swiveling from side to side, looking.

Gale backed up out of sight and waited a few seconds, not wanting them to know he’d been spying, then walked out to them.

“There you are! Randy was beginning to think you were imaginary.”

Randy... Good name, thought Gale. “Nope, I’m real,” he said, smiling.

Randy’s mouth fell open, much like it had when he had first seen this man… _Gale_ , he mentally sighed, his name is Gale… and found himself caught by strong arms and hazel eyes after their collision.

“Hi again,” said Gale.

“Hi.” Randy’s face curved with happiness. “You did say I’d see you.”

“You two know each other already?” Dylan asked, feeling a step behind.

“Not really.” As if to prove it, Gale stretched out his hand. “Gale Harold.”

Warm fingers and palms slid along each other and grasped firmly. “Randy Harrison.”

“Audition day,” Gale clarified to Dylan after a moment, once he‘d remembered to let go of Randy‘s hand. “He was… in a bit of a hurry as I was on my way out.”

“Yeah. Sorry again.”

“No problem. Glad you got the part.”

“Thanks.” Randy was suddenly very aware of Gale’s arm making its way around Dylan’s waist. Oh my God, he thought. I was so happy to see him, I didn’t even put it together. She said she was introducing me to her _boyfriend_ , and this is him. _He’s_ with her.

Randy had maybe let himself hope a little that his beautiful stranger was someone who might be interested in him. But not only was he straight, he was also involved…

“Let’s go home,” Dylan purred to Gale.

Apparently, _living with_ Randy’s female costar. He checked his watch again to try and hide his crumbling face.

“Shit, I better go, too. Before I’m late for work.”

“Oh, where do you work?” Dylan asked, mostly to be polite, but sounding interested.

“That little used bookstore on the corner of Harris and State street.”

Gale started quietly laughing. Randy and Dylan regarded him strangely.

“So you meant it literally.”

“Me?” Randy was puzzled. “I meant what literally?”

“ _Will Work For Books_.”

Oh, the T-shirt he’d worn… Despite knowing Gale was off-limits, Randy couldn’t help the tingly feeling he got from the man having paid him enough attention to remember something like that. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

The three of them finally left the stage and headed outside to the parking lot.

“Do you need a ride?” Gale offered, shrugging. “I mean, if you’re late.”

“No. That’s really nice, but I’ll be okay. I’m really fast on my bike.”

“Yeah? What kind of bike? I fucking love motorcycles.” He surveyed the lot, not seeing it.

“Oh, well, too bad.” Randy pointed, looking sheepish. “Because _that’s_ my ten speed.”

Gale was holding a hand in front of his mouth to cover his amusement.

“It’s not like I’ve got streamers on the handlebars!” Randy defended himself, having fun.

“I’m sure you ride like the fucking wind.”

“I do!”

Dylan shook her head and climbed into the passenger’s side of the truck. “You boys are very entertaining, but I’m ready to go home. Randy, I’ll see you at rehearsal Friday!”

“Yeah, um…” He tried not to giggle as he got on his bike. “Thanks, Dylan! See you then!” He looked back at Gale. “You, too?”

“Probably. I’ll be the one aiming a big spotlight at you.”

“Huh… Looking forward to it. Later, Gale.” Randy smiled softly this time and had pedaled quite a distance away before Gale managed to respond.

“Later, Randy.”

“He’s very talented,” Dylan said when he joined her in the truck. “And sweet, isn’t he?”

Gale’s mind was spinning like spoke wheels, and he tried to slow it down. Backed up and pulled out. Drove. “Yeah, he is.”

*****

Gale rolled off of Dylan, thinking that he should be more out of breath. So should she.

They were in bed, after just having what both would probably term _pretty good_ sex. They both came, both felt more satisfied than they had beforehand, but both also knew they’d been better. It just seemed like that was a while ago.

“You really think that was worth a cigarette?”

Gale’s hand stopped where it was reaching for his pack on the bedside table. “Fuck, Dylan. That’s harsh.”

She laughed, stretching her naked body over his to grab the cigarette and lighter, lighting one for herself and sharing it with him. “I was only kidding. I’ve got no complaints. It’s just…”

“What?”

“Well… I was watching some really hot bi porn the other day…”

It wasn’t an unusual thing to hear from her, but Gale was always amazed. He’d never known a girl who liked porn as much as Dylan. Fuck, she liked it even more than he did.

“And it got me to thinking. We’ve been together for a long time now, and it’s up to us to spice things up before they get a chance to get stale.”

Stale? “Mm hmm.” He thought he knew where she was going with this.

“I want us to bring a third party into the bedroom.”

He wasn’t thrown by his girlfriend’s superfreak ways. That was what he’d expected. “Dylan, we did that before… twice. Not that it wasn’t hot. I mean, I’ll go for it if you want, but I told you I don’t need…”

She started kissing up his chest persuasively, her face brimming with a secret… about to be spilled. “Not another woman this time. I want us to be with a man.”


	3. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dylan tries to convince the men to let her have her fun.

  


“You want another guy to fuck you?”

Gale gaped at Dylan. Was that really what she was suggesting? Because there was a fucking serious difference between being open-minded and being the world’s biggest sucker.

“No, baby, of course not.” She petted him, soothing while looking angelic and insulted that he would suggest such a thing. Then, in an instant, she turned devilish, her eyes gleaming with greedy excitement like a kid diving under the tree on Christmas morning. “I want _you_ to fuck another guy.”

What the…? He scrambled to sit, and tried to laugh but soon gave up. He knew she was totally serious. “……I don’t even know what to say to that.”

“Oh, please, Gale,” she scoffed. “Don’t act so shocked. It’s not like you’ve never been with a guy before.”

That’s what you get for sharing Frisco stories, he thought, taking a deep breath. “ _Been with_?… I have a feeling not the way you’re talking.”

“Okay, so you never actually fucked.” One fingertip tickled under his chin and made him look her in the eye. “Are you trying to tell me you never thought about it?”

Gale took a moment to answer, then just said, “I think a lot of shit, Dylan.”

She grinned. “I know you do. So, why don’t we make some of it a reality?”

“Don’t pretend this is for me. This is your fetish, or whatever it is.” He glanced wistfully at the cigarette in the ashtray, almost out, but didn’t feel like lighting a new one. “You really want to watch me fuck some guy?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“You know I like to experience new things. And two beautiful guys fucking is just hot… and it’s taboo… and you’ve never done it, so all your reactions will be brand new…” She stared off into space, obviously picturing. “And maybe you won’t be sure at first, but then you’ll like it almost against your will… God, I’m getting wet again just thinking about it.”

Gale laid out, dropping his head onto his pillow. “Go to sleep, Dylan.”

“You’re intrigued,” she said knowingly. “Come on. How about just… a maybe? _Maybe_ we’ll do it?”

Dylan wiggled her body, curvy and naked and warm, against his back… rubbed a knee against his ass… until he grunted and finally spoke.

“Maybe.”

She did her best not to squeal in celebration. She knew his ‘maybe’ was actually a shy yes. “Maybe we’ll do it… this weekend?”

He was quiet.

“I’ll arrange everything and surprise you. What do you think?”

Gale didn’t know what he thought. He didn’t know what the fuck he’d just, sort of, agreed to. He guessed it was only fair he do this for her, since she’d gone for the _another girl_ experimenting… except that had actually been Dylan’s idea, too. But he could admit the idea of being with a guy didn’t freak him out as much as it probably did most straight men. And that he might have considered it a time or two in his life before.

“Gale?”

He mumbled heavily into the pillow. “I better get some more weed.”

That meant he was on board. Dylan kissed his shoulder and laid down beside him. Though she was pretty sure she was too excited to sleep.

Now… to find their man.

*****

Dylan really didn’t have anybody picked out when she made the suggestion to Gale. Although, the guy who got fucked in that porn she saw was pretty delicious, so perhaps she was thinking of him at first. Then came the next play rehearsal. And the olive skin, ponytail of brown hair, and tall, skinny frame soon started to fade from her mind, to be replaced by someone a little shorter, a little blonder, and a lot more gorgeously pale.

She kept focus in her scenes, but in between she found herself appraising her costar. Somehow she hadn’t quite noticed before the way he moved. It was graceful and rhythmic, naturally so. It wasn’t feminine, just… _liquid_. He didn’t float across the stage, he flowed. It was very sexy.

And his ass was unreal. She could imagine Gale behind it, gripping it, pounding inside… God, yes.

Randy was perfect for them. She just wondered what it would take to convince him. Despite his baby face, he didn’t strike her as innocent, and certainly not a prude. Maybe just a bit serious. Maybe what he needed was…

“Dylan?”

“What?” Her chosen new toy was waving a hand in front of her face.

“ _Break for life_? Rehearsal’s over.”

“Oh, right.”

“What were you thinking about?”

Luckily, Dylan had never been one to blush. “I’ll tell you later. Maybe soon. Do you have to run to work right now?”

“No, I’m off today.”

“In that case, how would you like to join me for coffee? Or dinner, if you’re hungry? That café across the street. I'm buying.”

Randy was surprised, but not displeased. “Why not?” he said, smiling. “I’m too broke to say no.” His smile wavered with hope tempered with realism. “Just you, or… is Gale picking you up?”

“Just me. Gale got a repair job in Dryden. I came in my car.”

“Oh. I wondered why I didn’t see him around. He promised to shine a spotlight on me.” Randy’s voice faded away. Then he picked up his bag and nodded to Dylan, almost too enthusiastically. “Let’s go!”

The dreamy sadness on Randy’s face at speaking of Gale’s absence had not gone unnoticed. Maybe this would be easier than Dylan had thought. Maybe all it would take to convince Randy would be the mention of one man’s name.

*****

Fuck, it was hot out.

Even inside the garage, the temperature was enough to addle the brain. Which was why, while Gale’s hands were greasily engaged rebuilding the engine on a fucking sweet Moto Guzzi, his thoughts were melting into the weekend and what it would bring.

Most likely, his dick up a guy’s ass.

He tried not to think about it… about who. Dylan had good taste, and she knew his. Not that he had any kind of type when it came to other men.

So why, when he let himself picture it for a second, did he keep seeing the same image? A little blurry, but it looked an awful lot like…

No. He and Dylan were working together. Bad idea. It could totally fuck up the play. She wouldn’t risk that.

Would she?

His cell phone rang. He wiped his hands and answered. Dylan’s voice, saying only that she had found _him_ , and tomorrow night was the night.

Shit.

*****

After slipping into the ladies room to call Gale… which may have been a tad premature, but she was determined to get what she wanted… Dylan walked out to the table and sat across from Randy, finding him investigating the menu with these precious eyeglasses adorning his face.

“I didn’t know you wore glasses.”

He looked up and winced slightly. “Oh, yeah. Mostly just for reading.”

“I’ve never seen you wear them when you’re reading your script.”

“That’s why I memorize as much as I can at home,” he laughed. “And why, when I do read at rehearsal, I look like I’m concentrating so hard. Really I’m just squinting.”

“The secret is out,” she said, a faux shocked hand to her mouth.

“I don’t really like them, especially when I want to look good,” Randy admitted to her, then muttered to himself. “I guess I could have worn them today, since he wasn’t there to see…”

That’s when Dylan really saw, as his blond head ducked behind the menu and he pretended he hadn’t been saying anything, how much Randy was crushing on Gale. She’d thought she had picked up on _something_ , but now it was so clear in front of her. She realized this could be a bad idea. If Randy had actual feelings for Gale, he stood to get hurt by having Gale fuck him for fun but not be able to give him more.

But Randy was an adult. And, if his crush translated to a yes…

The waitress came back, bringing their drinks and taking their orders. Dylan decided to relax Randy with some innocuous, non-Gale-related topics of conversation.

“Did you move here recently?”

He looked relieved by the question. “Yeah, about six weeks ago. How’d you know?”

“I just can’t think of any other reason why it would have taken this long for you to find your way to the Serendipity.”

“I was in Cincinnati before this, going to school. Before that, Atlanta.”

Dylan chewed her straw at that interesting coincidence, but didn’t mention it. “What brought you to Ithaca?”

“I always kind of wanted to live in New York,” he replied. “Try my hand at Broadway, you know? But it’s fucking expensive in the city. So, I started looking around the state. Ithaca’s got great theatre of its own, _obviously_. The arts scene is amazing. And it’s extremely gay-friendly, which is a big plus.”

Dylan hadn’t meant to bring the conversation around to sexuality so soon, but suddenly she felt this was her segue.

“Randy, are you seeing anyone right now?”

“No.” He regretted speaking so quickly. He hoped this wasn’t about setting him up on some blind date, because those _never_ went well. “Why?”

She chose to skip answering that question and press on. “What do you think of Gale? He’s hot, isn’t he?”

Randy’s first thought was, _That’s the fucking understatement of my lifetime_. His second was, _Oh shit_ … that she must have picked up on his attraction to her boyfriend and was about to warn him away.

“Dylan, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… I know he’s not… If I’ve made either of you uncomfortable…”

“Hey, Rambling Randy,” she kidded. “Quit apologizing. It’s good that you like him.”

He was really confused now. “It is?”

“Sure. And I should apologize to you in advance, because I may be about to offend you. But here we go.” Dylan leaned in towards him, over the table. “How would you like to join us on a little… sexual adventure?”

Randy nearly spat out his raspberry iced tea. What the…?

“Excuse me? I’m sorry, for a moment, I actually thought you said…”

The waitress interrupted, setting down their plates before them. Dylan barely waited until the girl was out of earshot and then clarified, calmly, her perfectly painted lips forming a surely dangerous smile.

“Would you like Gale to fuck you?”

That had to be a trick question. Randy tried not to melt at the suggestion or implode at the impossibility. But it was her, “Please say yes,” that followed… that’s what convinced him he had to be dreaming.

Silence stretched for several minutes as Dylan nibbled her salad and Randy just kept pinching himself.


	4. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Randy makes his decision.

  


“I should have let you eat first. That sandwich is just going to lay there, untouched, isn’t it?”

Food was the last thing on Randy’s mind at the moment. He stared at her. “Dylan, are you being serious? Or is this some kind of theatre prank on the new guy? If so, good job, you got me.”

She shook her head quickly, hoping she could make him understand. “No, no. There’s no prank on the new guy. And, if there were, it wouldn’t be this. Why is it so hard to believe…?”

“That you’re inviting me to get fucked by your boyfriend?” His face was incredulous, his voice hushed, his head swerving back and forth to make sure no one was listening. “Oh my God, just saying it is crazy.”

“What’s so crazy? We like you. We think you’re hot. We want to have fun with you.”

“Gale thinks I’m…?”

So maybe Gale hadn’t said that, but she didn’t feel bad nodding in affirmation. Randy needed to feel wanted if he was ever going to agree to this.

Randy felt lit inside with unexpected joy, not because Gale thought he was hot, but because Gale thought of him at all. Still, he wasn’t actually considering this, was he? Shit, he loved sex, and he liked to consider himself open-minded, but he’d never even tried a threesome with two other guys. Being with a guy and a _girl_ was not something he had ever thought would come into consideration.

“So, what do you think?”

“Uh… Dylan, how do I say this?” Randy ran a hand through his short hair, blew out a breath. “I’m… flattered, really. But it’s weird.”

“Why?”

“Why?? I’ll give you a list… We’re working on the play together. You’re a girl and I’m gay. Gale is your _boyfriend_. We barely know each other… Is that enough?”

The woman actually giggled. “Okay, let me try to answer those one at a time… I wouldn’t suggest this if I thought it would hurt the play. The theatre’s much too important to me. I always say I’d rather people think I was a bad person than a bad actress. Hell, I’d rather _be_ a bad person than a bad actress.”

That frightened Randy slightly, but mostly because he understood it. She continued.

“I know you’re gay, silly. That’s kind of the point. Gale deserves a man who knows what he’s doing.”

She raised one eyebrow and looked pointedly at his mouth. Randy had absentmindedly picked up a French fry, and he realized, instead of eating it, he was just lightly sucking it. The fry fell to the plate.

“I know you don’t find _me_ attractive, but I promise I won’t expect you to fuck me,” Dylan said solemnly, then laughed. “And Gale and I have experimented with our boundaries before. We enjoy it. I think it brings us closer together.”

Randy nodded slowly, trying to take in everything she was saying and actually process it… This works for them. The play will be okay. _Gale deserves a man who knows what he’s doing._

“And it’s good that the three of us don’t know each other that well. We know enough to know we enjoy each other, we’re comfortable with each other, but we’re not such close friends that it might be awkward to venture over into more… carnal territory.”

He watched her calmly chew bites of her salad, sip her seltzer, while he just tried to stop sweating. “It’s a little scary.”

“What? A three-way?”

“No. How much sense you make.”

She gave a happy gasp. “Does that mean you’ll play with us? Are you saying yes?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Dylan looked disappointed for a second, but she wasn’t giving up. She could feel that he was close to surrendering. One more button to push…

“Well, I wish you’d say yes. We want to do it this weekend. If it’s not going to be you, I’ll have to find somebody else for Gale to fuck.”

Randy’s eyes sharpened when she said that, and more so as she pulled a small address book out of her purse and started riffling through it. “What are you doing?”

She shrugged. “Looking for the second string. There’s this cute guy at the Farmers Market who told me, flat out, he wanted to take Gale home with him. I guess it’s time to give him a call.”

His stomach twisted. This was going to happen with or without him. Gale was going to fuck a guy. It could either be him, or some random guy. He didn’t want Gale with somebody else. He knew Dylan was Gale’s girlfriend, knew he couldn’t have him, but the thought of him with another man was something different. It sliced and stung.

“Dylan, wait.”

She paused in her book, looked up, and waited. “Yes?”

One deep breath for courage and… “I’ll do it.”

“Oh, Randy, that’s fabulous!” Dylan put the book away, proud of her semi-bluff. That guy did exist and did say that about Gale… she just didn’t have his number. “I am so excited.”

Randy couldn’t manage a smile yet. Caught between a rush of bliss, the realization of what he’d been dreaming since first laying eyes on Gale within arm’s reach… and the logic he could never quite switch off, screaming in his head that he was volunteering himself for a world of hurt and broken heart.

“You’ll be excited, too. Once you get used to the idea.” She wrote their address on a napkin, passed it to him, then grabbed his hand and squeezed his fingers. “I promise you won’t regret it.”

“Should I bring anything?” He cursed his own good manners.

“We’ll have plenty of wine, and condoms, so… just yourself. What time’s good for you?”

Was this really how threesomes happened? Porn always made them seem so spontaneous, and here he was scheduling an appointment. Randy couldn’t decide if he felt cosmopolitan or slutty. But… Gale was going to fuck him. _Gale_.

He decided that was all he cared about.

*****

The next night, Gale was fucking nervous. He felt oddly like he was getting ready for a date. He’d showered that morning and, for some reason, showered again early that evening. He’d shaved and splashed on a spice-scented aftershave, deciding against cologne. He’d given way too much thought to whether or not he should trim his pubic hair (decided against it). And it took him way too long to decide to wear a fucking button-down black shirt and pair of jeans, that probably wouldn’t stay on for more than five minutes anyway.

Shit. The things he did for his crazy girlfriend. Because, obviously, this was all for her.

He looked at the clock. Their mystery visitor was supposed to be there at 8 pm. It was 7:49.

Gale found his stash and rolled himself a hefty joint, then headed to the living room and joined Dylan on the couch. She had been primping and preparing all day, and the results were spectacular.

“You sure we need this other guy?” he murmured as he nibbled her earlobe.

“Yes,” she said, playfully batting him away. “He’ll be here any minute. Besides, I really don’t think you put all that effort into sprucing yourself up just for me.”

He didn’t reply. Just flicked his lighter and lit his joint, taking a pull.

“Gale, do you have to smoke those in the house? They stink.”

“I’m fucking a guy for you. I can smoke where I want.” He grinned and she let it go. After a moment or two of quiet puffing, he couldn’t help asking, “Do I know him?”

“I’m not telling you that,” she insisted. “It’s more fun when you know nothing.”

Fun for her, maybe. “How did you even find this guy? Let me guess. You can take one look and instantly determine a bi-curious man.”

“Probably. But he’s not bi-curious. Or even bisexual.”

“He’s not.”

“Nope. He’s completely gay, baby.”

“What?”

“Only the best for you.”

Gale nearly dropped his joint… though he wasn’t quite sure why he was so surprised. Neither was Dylan.

“Does that make a difference?”

This pot was for shit. Why wasn’t he relaxed yet? “Just… kind of puts more pressure on me somehow. And I guess I’m wondering why the fuck he’d agree if he’s only gonna be half into it.”

“He may not be into girls, but if you’re fucking him and I start sucking his cock, I seriously doubt he’s going to push me off.” She lounged on the couch, eyes closed, an all too contented smile on her face.

“I guess he’s signed on for whatever he gets, but just don’t do anything to scar him for life, please? Literally or figuratively.”

Dylan held up her right hand. “I won’t subject him to my pussy any more than necessary, I promise. And, to answer your original question, I just saw him and knew we had to have him. He’s just, ah, so fucking adorable.”

Gale swallowed the notion that it could be _him_. It wouldn’t be him. “Adorable? How old is this guy?”

“Legal age or above,” she said vaguely. “Don’t worry. We won’t be breaking the law. We’re not even in one of those backward states where sodomy’s still illegal. Although, damn… that would kind of make it even hotter.”

“Freak. You’re really not gonna tell me anything else?”

Her lips formed a thin line, curving upward as she shook her head. “Trust me. You’ll like your surprise.”

At those words, there was a knock on the door. They both stood.

“Open it,” Dylan encouraged, nudging him.

Gale dropped his stick in the ashtray and walked to the door, turning the doorknob… determined not to be disappointed that it wasn’t…

“Hi.”

It was him. Randy on his doorstep, looking nervous but happy. Gorgeous. Randy, apparently, ready to be fucked. By him.

“Hi.” Beyond that word, Gale was frozen.

“Um, can I come in?”

Dylan moved past Gale and took Randy’s hand, pulling him inside. “You can come anywhere you’d like, sweetie.”

Randy looked over at Gale, still standing by the door, but spoke to Dylan. “Why does he look so shocked to see…? Fuck. He didn’t know, did he?” He shouted in a whisper. “You didn’t tell me he didn’t know!”

“I promised him a surprise,” she explained. “But I knew you were a surprise he would like. Gale, tell him.”

Gale wanted to. He really did. But he opened his mouth and what came out was, “Maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”

Randy bit his lip and tried not to show the hurt on his face. “I guess you were wrong… Thanks for thinking of me, really,” he said to her. “But I’d better go.”

He played it cool, but then nearly ran out the door.

“Gale, don’t just let him leave!” Dylan begged.

Gale nodded, already making his way to follow. He needed to fix it somehow. He didn’t think he could explain, but… he didn’t want Randy to be sad. To think he didn’t want him.

“Randy, wait!”


	5. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sex! :) (Even with three, it's all about our two.)

  


“Randy, wait!… Did you have to ride your bike here?”

Gale could imagine Dylan rolling her eyes and saying, “ _That’s_ how you convince him to stay?” But it was the first thing that came to him… the thought of Randy riding all that way, however far, in the dark. He pulled the front door closed behind him so that it would be just the two of them. He’d caught the sensitive young man with one foot still on the front step.

“No, I have a car.” Randy gestured down the driveway but didn’t turn. “It’s just cheaper, taking the bike when I can.”

Gale didn’t know what to do. He was wrestling with his own excitement here. A big part of him wanted to call the whole thing off. He had convinced himself that this was something he was doing mostly for Dylan, to keep her happy, and it would have been true had anyone else shown up at their door. With Randy… that felt like a lie. He couldn’t make sense of why the actor was different.

He just knew something inside him screamed when Randy ran away.

“Don’t go,” Gale finally said.

The reply was soft. “I think I should.”

“Why?”

“Why are you trying to talk me out of it? You’re the one who said this was a bad idea. I know you want to please your girlfriend, but you’re obviously repulsed by me…”

Gale laughed. He sat on the bottom step, next to Randy’s foot, and looked up, still laughing. “Sorry, I’m not laughing at you. It’s just… you’re wrong.”

“I am?” Randy’s expression was highly disbelieving and bordering on pissed off.

“Uh, _yeah_.” Gale gave the blond a heated look… down his body… lingering at the way his pants hugged his ass, which was almost at Gale’s eye level… and back up to his face. “You are.”

“Oh.” Randy flushed, sitting beside Gale. “Well… I’m not usually wrong… but I suppose anything’s possible.” He turned to give the beautiful Mr. Harold a small smile, which grew involuntarily into a dazzling, know-it-all grin.

“It happens to even the most perfect of us.” Gale bumped Randy’s shoulder with his and found himself surprised by how comfortable he was with this kid, considering their unusual situation. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-two. I know, I look young. Why? How old are you?”

“Thirty. Fuck, I’ll be thirty-one soon.” He waited. “No old man comments?”

Randy’s eyes were confused, then amused. “God, you’re touchy about it, aren’t you? Thirty’s young.”

“I like you.” Gale decided this shining face was already too endeared to him. It was now or never. He stood and offered his hand. “C’mon.”

He watched Randy’s thumb sneak between his front teeth and wiggle slightly in some kind of adorably nervous gesture. It stayed there even as his other hand reached up and accepted Gale’s, letting him pull him up.

Gale could feel the tension running through Randy, about to jump out of his skin from just that innocent contact. He wanted to put him at ease somehow. So, he dipped his head and kissed him. Only for a second or two, very sweetly. But, when it was over, both men felt a bit as if they’d kissed a live wire, lips still vibrating with electricity.

It scared Gale, but he didn’t want to frighten Randy, so he didn’t let it show. “You ready for this?”

Randy was looking at Gale like he would follow him anywhere. “I think so,” he said, then brushed his face against the fabric of Gale’s shirt and sniffed. “If you’re willing to share some of your stash with me?”

Gale laughed and opened the door for Randy. “See? I knew I liked you.”

*****

One joint shared in warm silence, four kicked off shoes, and ten or so minutes later, they ventured into the bedroom, finding Dylan impatiently waiting, clad only in black lace bra and panties.

“There you are, boys. I was about to start without you.” She delicately swung her legs over the side of the bed and smiled. “Good to _have_ you, Randy.”

As she stalked towards the two of them, Gale whispered to his soon-to-be lover, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” He winked and Randy winked back.

Close enough to trail a finger inside her boyfriend’s shirt and work a few buttons loose, Dylan eyed the men suspiciously. “Gale, did you get him stoned? Because that’s not part of my fantasy.”

“We’re just buzzed,” he assured her. “Now we’re both… _high_ ly receptive to whatever may happen.” To silence any further complaints, he grabbed her tiny waist and kissed her, all open mouths and tongue and roaming hands. She managed to peel his shirt the rest of the way off without breaking contact, moaning in delight as Gale’s hands pushed inside her panties and groped her ass.

Randy watched uncomfortably, seeing the two of them wrapped up in each other like this… wishing he had a better view of Gale shirtless… and feeling like a third wheel, unnecessary.

“Jump in, honey,” Dylan’s voice coaxed.

Randy wasn’t quite sure where to “jump,” but he walked forward, drawn to the smooth expanse of Gale’s skin. Resolved to _be_ , to _do_ , to feel but not to think, he touched. He held onto the strong shoulders and let his lips light upon Gale’s back, shoulder blades. Softly at first, but adding suction, scrapes of teeth as he breathed Gale in and got higher than he had from the marijuana.

Hands tugged at his shirt and pulled the material up and over his head. He realized they had to be Dylan’s, but that didn’t matter. Chest pressed to back, bare skin to bare skin, and Randy felt Gale shiver. Whatever Dylan was doing to Gale at the time, he just knew that reaction was for him.

Wanted to taste. Randy’s tongue licked curiously at salt and warmth, making cooling paths up the back of his neck. He wished Gale’s head would turn, that he could kiss him, but his mouth was still occupied with Dylan.

Except Dylan was speaking. “That didn’t take long. You like all this attention, don’t you, baby?”

Randy stopped suddenly and had to wrap an arm around Gale’s waist to keep his knees from giving out. He realized that he had been grinding his pelvis into the curve of Gale’s ass, best he could through two layers of denim. And he wasn’t the only one who had gotten hard.

Randy hooked one finger in a belt loop and found himself led to the bed. Dylan was getting Gale out of his jeans and pushing him to lie down. She sat on one side, Randy on the other, and both admired the beautiful body awaiting their torturous worship. The long and lean and muscle. The rose flush of desire beneath the golden. The promise of his cock…

Dylan reached for Randy’s hand and placed it on Gale’s erection through the black boxer briefs. He thought he heard her say, “Go on,” so he did. He gave a little squeeze, then replaced his hand with his face, breathing Gale’s smell and opening his mouth to suck him teasingly through the fabric. A hiss of breath encouraged him, and Randy looked up to find Gale’s eyes right on his, as if giving permission to remove the last barrier.

Randy’s fingers trembled a bit as they tucked inside the waistband and pulled. He was vaguely aware of legs shifting and the briefs being discarded, but Randy was lost once Gale’s dick was revealed. Long and perfect and straining towards his mouth. Leaning on Gale’s thigh, he took him in, curling his tongue around the shaft and bathing it in heat and wet. He left to suck hungrily at the man’s balls and bury his nose in the scented dark curls, but soon returned, going deeper, cheeks pulling tighter, lips dragging harder. Every “fuck” Gale uttered was the sweetest sound Randy knew.

He started concentrating pressure on the head, so sensitized, and Gale’s hips rocked and his eyes shut tight. Seeing a vacancy, a well-manicured hand began jacking the base of his dick up to the busy mouth and back down, moving smoothly in the wake of Randy’s saliva.

Gale actually had the thought… even as she was kissing him… that he wished she would take her hand away… talented as it was… and let Randy fucking swallow him already… But he felt bad for it… He was mostly relieved… this was the role Dylan was taking… She watched so much porn he’d been afraid… she would try to act like those girls… grab Randy’s hair and shove him down… Randy’s throat around his cock would be amazing… but not with Dylan screaming at him to choke on it…

Dylan surprised them both by pulling Randy gently off of Gale, chuckling at their matching groans of complaint.

“Extremely hot, boys. But Gale doesn’t get to come yet. He’s got to fuck us both… Guest first.”

Randy wanted to taste Gale’s cum, the drop he’d licked from his tip just a tease. But he wanted Gale to fuck him even more.

Gale sat up, carefully, reached out and grabbed Randy’s wrist. “Why do you still have your fucking pants on?”

“Just an oversight.” Randy held his breath and slowly released it as he undid his jeans and took them off. God, those had been much too tight and his dick much too swollen inside them. The pressure had been killing him.

“I was gonna say, hell of a time to be shy, after _that_.” But Gale smiled a bit shyly himself, even as he eyed the hardness encased snugly in soft cotton.

Dylan stood up and shimmied out of her bra, full breasts hanging free, and then panties. “Mmm, had to get those off. I was soaked through.” She grabbed a condom from a pile on the bedside table, ripped it open, and set to sheathing Gale.

Randy forced his eyes from Gale’s cock and instead held his gaze as he removed his underwear and offered himself completely. He rolled to face down on the bed.

“No, not there. Your dick’s not going to be able take rubbing those sheets.” Dylan turned back to Gale, running her tongue along his lips. “And I won’t be able to see. Fuck him against that wall.”

She directed them across the room and into position, and Randy leaned forward, spreading his hands, spreading his legs. Gale towered behind him, thrumming with sex, and Randy didn’t think his body had ever been more aware of another person. Even before he felt the latex-covered length cradled in his crack.

“Dylan, these aren’t the lubed kind,” Gale said, worry in his voice.

“Sorry. I got the kind we always get.”

“Dylan doesn’t need lube,” he whispered over Randy’s shoulder. “She’s like Niagara Falls.”

With Gale hard against him and his voice in his ear, Randy couldn’t even be turned off by that. Though he did whisper back, “Gross,” and he felt Gale laugh. “I don’t need it either,” he added, with more confidence than he felt.

“Are you sure?”

Randy was pretty sure he nodded, but before he knew what was happening, Gale had sunk to his knees behind him and was palming his ass cheeks, pulling them apart, investigating his hole.

“G-Gale, what… you don’t have to…”

“Shhh… I want to help.”

A warm, wet swipe of only slightly timid tongue hushed any further protest, though not sounds. Randy yelped and jumped and Gale held him more firmly in place. Needed moisture dripped from the tongue that nudged Randy’s hole, coating it. Gale blew cool on it, just to watch the pucker twitch, then licked it warm again. But he hadn’t entered yet. Gale wondered of himself, if he wanted to. To taste him so…

“Fuck me… please…” came Randy’s plaintive wail.

“That’s it, Randy. Beg him.” Dylan’s voice, breathy, rose from the floor a few feet from them, where she lay, sprawled out and touching herself. “He’ll fuck you _so good_.”

Gale nearly lost his breath before he’d begun, from the pearlescent skin, the voice that begged, the ass that beckoned. He ran one hand down the already sweat-dampened back, using his other to guide his cock to its point of desire.

Destination, he thought. Only a destination. Not truly desire.

And he proved himself a liar by how desperately he gripped those hips and pushed inside.

“ _Fuck_ , ahhh,” Randy cried as he was stretched. It always burned, but this was something hotter and sweeter than anything before. He didn’t even take a moment to let his body adjust before he found himself pushing back, requesting more. Still, Gale checked on him.

“Okay?” rumbled in his ear.

“Mm hmm,” he whimpered, pushing harder to prove the point, trying to take Gale deeper. Asking him to thrust, to move inside him.

Gale pulled out and this time watched his cock slide inside Randy’s hole. He was fascinated by it. There was nothing unnatural about this. It felt more natural than most things in Gale’s life, actually.

He didn’t fully understand that thought, but it made him pound into Randy harder.

“Is he tight, baby? How’s that ass feel?”

Gale didn’t answer. He guessed it was kind of the point of the evening, but he didn’t want to share that with Dylan… Dylan?

Although it was a strange juxtaposition, he had been watching her as well. Rolling on the floor watching them, pinching her tits and fingering herself. He’d always found her abandon very sexy. Suddenly, he noticed she wasn’t there anymore.

Randy made a strange sound, like pleasure that was unhappily won. Gale dipped his face over the pale shoulder to ask if he’d hurt him, and instead found Dylan kneeling on the floor between Randy and the wall, his helpless dick in her mouth.

Maybe she had been right. He wouldn’t push her away, because he didn’t seem like he _could_ right now. But Gale could tell from his face that he didn’t want her there. He stilled inside Randy and brushed a small kiss to his temple, erasing the guilty grimace that he had worn.

“Dylan, I only want him to feel _me_.”

She freed her mouth reluctantly. “Gale, let me play.” She licked as she talked, tonguing the slit. “I want you to fuck him down my throat. Please? His dick is so beautiful.”

Randy’s body jerked in confusion and his face turned to bury itself in the side of Gale’s neck. Gale was filled with protectiveness.

“You’ve convinced me, babe.” He reached around Randy and wrapped his hand around the hard, slick length. “So, let me have him. I’m fucking him. No fair if you make him come with that mouth of yours.”

Dylan pouted. “Fine.” She crawled away again, back on her back, legs fallen open and fingers in the honey pot. “But you better make him come fucking _hard_.”

Gale pulled out again, only to slam back into Randy, who moaned loudly. “If we want to keep her away from your dick, I guess I better do what she says, hmm?”

All Randy could think to say was, “Yes.” All he wanted to say to Gale in this moment was, “Yes.” So he said it a lot. “Yes… yes… yes… yes.”

He said it as Gale’s hand pumped his dick. He said it as Gale’s other arm wrapped around his waist and palmed his flat belly, holding him even closer. He said it as the rhythm of their hips picked up and Gale fucked him deeper, deeper, and he could feel the slap of heavy balls at the join of his thighs.

The muscles in Gale’s legs were screaming with fatigue. More than that, the muscles in Randy’s ass were squeezing him so fucking tight. He wanted to give in, in Randy… to give Randy…

Gale stretched his chest over Randy’s back and pushed them both a little closer to the wall, until his hands laid overtop the slightly smaller ones. His teeth tugged gently on Randy’s earlobe. “When it’s time to come… you just come, okay?” He smiled against his ear. “Don’t announce it… or Dylan’ll be telling you… where to point your jizz.”

Randy wanted to laugh, but he couldn’t. Gale’s breath was hot on his neck, Gale’s cock was bumping his prostate on every thrust, and he was being fucked into the wall. The tingling that signaled his orgasm was running through his entire body. He stopped bracing himself, let his arms collapse completely and the wall catch him so that he could reach a hand back and sink fingers into soft, brown hair.

Randy felt lips skim his wrist and that was it for him. He felt the blinding rush, everything went white, and the spasms that wracked him milked his cock dry. Almost immediately, he heard the shout of curses and felt Gale coming all through him. Shuddering inside him as his ass clenched, not wanting to let Gale go. Felt time slow as his breaths sped up. Felt Gale’s sweat mixed with his own between them as he leaned back. Felt the slow, slow softening inside and the too soon emptiness that replaced it.

He was distantly aware of a feminine voice joining the orgasmic chorus just as Gale tied off the condom and threw it in a nearby wastebasket. Randy watched mournfully, still wanting Gale’s cum in his mouth. But he liked that he came inside him, rather than pulling out.

Dylan, despite the ecstasy they had inspired her to, said she had wanted to see Gale come _on_ Randy. She made do with telling Gale to lick Randy’s own cum off his stomach… as he had shot on the wall and then been rubbed around in it.

Gale’s tongue cleaned him, all over his stomach and up to his chest… and a swipe or two across his now flaccid dick… even touching places where his skin wasn’t sticky. Afterwards, without being directed to do so, he kissed Randy, swirling Randy’s taste in both their mouths. It was the first time they had kissed like that… open, deep, not wanting to end.

Because both men figured it would also be the last time.

Dylan thought how the guys in the bi porn never kissed the twinks they fucked. But Gale was a sweetheart, still trying to make Randy feel comfortable. They had been hot as hell together, true, but she decided it was her turn for a little attention.

So, she “cut in” on the kiss, devouring Gale’s mouth in an attempt to get him hard again. Although, Randy had been making progress there just fine. Then Gale and Dylan got on the bed and she straddled him, fucking with her on top. Randy felt out of place again and really didn’t want to watch, but he ended up going along with her suggestion to sit by them on the bed and jerk off.

At first he closed his eyes tightly, but then he opened, finding Gale’s eyes waiting to rescue him. Gale was fucking Dylan… or, really, she was fucking herself _on_ him… but he kept looking at Randy. It only took a handful of fast and furious strokes and Randy moved closer, coming all over Gale’s chest.

Dylan hit her peak less than a minute later, bouncing and keening and throwing her head back. When she’d calmed somewhat, she dropped forward and smeared Randy’s cum wantonly around with her breasts.

Gale came for the second time soon after Dylan. Though, more precisely, it was while staring into eyes of a different blue. And feeling Randy’s foot slide along the inside of his leg.

They lay, heavy and exhausted, on the bed… some with heads full of questions, or hearts full of doom… all craving a cigarette.

The silence was broken by she who started it all. “Randy, next time you have to fuck Gale.”

Randy’s happiness grew in proportion to his fear.

Gale was surprised by his lack of fear. By his overwhelming relief that it wasn’t over.


	6. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gale stalks Randy, lol.

  
A _few days after…_

“We’ve had this conversation. Answers are the same… Mom, stop using that word.”

The word was _marriage_. Gale may have been the one with the filthy mouth, but he considered the M-word infinitely more objectionable than any of those colorful little ones in his vocabulary. He didn’t talk to his mother very often, but when she actually called and he actually picked up the phone… well, it was enough to remind him _why_ they didn’t talk very often.

It was kind of hysterical how much she liked Dylan. They’d only met once, but she couldn’t say enough nice things about her. He was pretty sure it was more the very _possibility_ of grandchildren than Dylan herself that his mother favored. He tried to tell her that Dylan didn’t want kids, and that she was even less marriage-minded than he was, but it never seemed to sink in. They’d been together for a long time (by his standards, anyway) because there was something easy there that seemed to work, but they never talked about the future.

He could probably stop his mother planning one for them if he just told her what a superfreak his girlfriend was. Challenge all her perfect Pentecostal sensibilities with details of Dylan’s porn-viewing habits and a play by play of the recent ménage a trois she had arranged. How, thanks to Dylan, his dick knew what it was like to fuck a guy’s ass and couldn’t seem to shake the sensation. How, if she had her way, he was going to know what it was like to have that same guy fuck him. He should tell her all that…

Maybe next time.

“Mom, I can’t hear you… bad connection… lots of static… what?… what?” he dramatized, fibbing rather convincingly and hanging up.

Gale had to go to the theatre, anyway. He was meeting Holly to discuss lighting cues, and then of course he had to pick up Dylan. He thought for a moment he should pick up some flowers for Dylan and take them to her. He wasn’t sure why.

Maybe he should get flowers for Randy, too… That thought skidded into his brain and out with an uneasy laugh.

He felt more awkward just thinking about seeing Randy again than he had when they’d said goodbye late that night. They’d told him he could stay… on the couch, or even in the fucking bed with them… but he’d said he should go. Dylan had kissed him on the cheek, but Gale hadn’t known what to do. You couldn’t shake the hand of a guy you just fucked. Wave? He’d be a cold bastard. A kiss on the cheek was okay for Dylan but lame coming from him, he’d decided, and a kiss on the mouth just seemed… like a bad idea. So he’d given Randy a hug that had been surprisingly comfortable.

Gale told himself it was the time that had passed and not the dreams he’d been having since that would make things awkward now.

Fuck, he was picking her up some flowers.

*****

Randy didn’t usually daydream so much. He enjoyed his job. It was quiet, most of the customers weren’t assholes, and when things were slow he got time to read. But, for the past couple of days, every time he picked up a book, the words would shift and blur on the pages until they formed some erotic tableau that always seemed to look like him and Gale.

The first post-fuck rehearsal had been… weird. Scenes went fine, but they weren’t exactly made easier by Dylan whispering in his ear between scenes about how hot Saturday night had been, and how he and Gale had looked when they were fucking, and the possibilities of *next* weekend…

Randy’s feelings about Dylan now were as convoluted as he’d ever experienced. He had respect for her as an actress, because she was certainly talented. He’d had the beginnings of a friendship with her and still thought she was basically a nice person. He had natural gratitude towards her for what she’d given him… Gale, no matter how temporarily or what her reasons. But he couldn’t help but resent her for being the one who got to keep Gale. He’d also seen her naked and coming, which he could have lived well without, and… shit, his dick had been in her mouth. However briefly, part of him wouldn’t forgive her for that.

He wondered if he was remembering the way Gale had been with him as something more than it was. Sure, he knew it was just a fuck, but was his mind inventing the kisses and the looks and the care Gale had taken? He didn’t think so. It sounded ridiculous… Gale protecting him from the big, bad girl… but he had.

Randy wondered, if he fucked Gale, if he would get to protect _him_ from the big, bad girl.

*****

“Gale, this is so sweet. What made you get me flowers?”

“I need a reason?” They’re just your average _I enjoyed fucking that guy you found for us *way* too much, sorry about that_ flowers.

“No, I love them.” Dylan looped her arm through his as they walked to the truck. “I just hope they’re not letting me down easy, about… you know.”

The three of them meeting up again. Randy fucking Gale. He’d said before he left that he would do it, if Gale wanted him to. “I haven’t decided about that yet.”

She sighed, playing put out. “You just let me know when you do, okay?”

Gale paused, then asked… casually… “So, why wasn’t Randy at rehearsal?”

“Oh, he was. But his boss changed his work schedule or something, and he had to leave early. Why?” They climbed in and she looked at him, eyes gleaming with laughter, though she didn’t laugh. “Do you miss your boyfriend already?”

“Fuck you, Dylan,” he ground out, starting up the engine.

“Shit…” Dylan clutched her flowers, not having expected that reaction. Gale rarely swore at _her_. And he was never the type of man to let an insinuation like that, obviously meant in kidding, bother him before. He was too comfortable in himself, which was one of the things she loved about him.

The drive home was short and silent. When Dylan opened her door and started to get out, Gale didn’t.

“I’m gonna drive around for a while,” he said.

“My God, are you really that mad at me?” she asked, worried. “You know how I am. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

He shook his head. “No, I know. I’m not mad… I swear, I’m not.” He really wasn’t. “I just feel like taking a drive.”

“Okay. You should do that then.” She leaned over and kissed his arm by the elbow. “Thanks again for my flowers, Gale. Come home… before too long.”

He watched her go inside, grateful that she knew him well enough to know that sometimes a drive helped to clear his head.

Even if he was fairly sure this one would only confuse him more.

*****

It was a cute little bookshop, called Page Turners. Gale had been in there a few times, but not recently… and never to stand behind a bookshelf, watching one of the employees… until now.

He had driven in circuitous routes for about half an hour and then found himself only ten minutes away from home, at the shop where he’d somehow remembered Randy worked. There to do… what?

Apparently, stalk Randy.

He’d damned the bell over the door that had clanged when he came in, then breathed a sigh of relief that _he_ wasn’t standing behind the counter. Only to tense up again when he heard the familiar voice call, “I’ll be right with you!”

It was when he heard Randy’s footsteps and ducked behind a tall, wooden shelf, then watched through a gap in the books as he walked out and looked around, that Gale really started to wonder what the fuck his fucking problem was. Why the fuck he was even there. Why he didn’t just get back in his fucking truck and drive the fuck home.

And if he hadn’t been so busy cursing a blue streak in his own head, maybe he would have realized that his makeshift peephole worked both ways before he was suddenly staring at a big, blue eye.

“Gale?”

He stepped back, startled, and Randy came around to join him on the other side.

“I thought that was you. What are you doing here?”

“I was just… driving around. Gonna pick up some dinner for me and Dylan.” Yeah, he’d probably do that, now that he thought of it.

“Oh, well, unfortunately we have a strict policy against eating the books.” Randy chewed his lip to slightly tamp down his smile, tilting his head at Gale in confusion.

“Ha ha. No, I was just…”

“… in the neighborhood and thought you’d say hi?”

Gale looked relieved. “Yeah.”

Randy stopped holding his smile back. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

It had seemed as though they were the only two people in the shop, but apparently that wasn’t the case. A pointed clearing of the throat called Randy’s attention to a customer waiting to be rung up. He whispered “excuse me” and touched Gale’s shoulder briefly before hurrying over.

Randy silently marveled… as he worked the register, gave change, nodded, thanked… at the fact that Gale had come to see him. What was more, he actually seemed nervous. Not uncomfortable with what they’d done and wanting to pretend it never happened, but genuinely nervous, which was probably the only thing keeping Randy’s own nervousness under control.

The customer left, and before Randy could return to Gale, Gale had walked up to the counter and plunked down a find.

“What’s this?”

“This is called a _book_ , Randy. Working in a bookstore, you should know that.”

“Very cute,” he said, not sure if he was talking about Gale’s little joke or his shit-eating grin. “You want to buy it?”

“Is that okay? That happens here, right?”

“From time to time.” Randy picked up the book and studied the cover. “Ansel Adams, huh? His photographs are really beautiful.”

“He was amazing.”

“You’re into photography?”

Gale nodded. “I’ve gotten paid for it a few times, but I’m not that good. It’s a cool hobby, though.”

Randy loved that he was learning things about Gale. They really hadn’t _talked_ that much so far. But it felt like they were close enough to play with each other, even out of the bedroom. He took Gale’s credit card that had been laid in front of him and squinted at it. “Right, Mr.… Harold, if that is your real name. I’m going to have to see some ID.”

Gale smiled and stood there until he realized Randy, kidding or not, was actually waiting for him to show ID. You fuck a guy, you kind of expect a little recognition. “Don’t I look familiar?”

“Maybe.” Randy gave Gale’s body a roaming look of deep thought. “But, to prove it, it’s either your driver’s license or you drop your pants.”

The license seemed to come from nowhere and landed on the counter with a plastic thwap.

“Oh. Darn.” Randy suppressed a giggle and said nothing else, only located the information he was seeking and gave it back. “I didn’t know they let you get a license when you’re stoned. Nice picture.”

“Shut the fuck up. Everybody looks like that on their license. Let me see yours.”

Randy pulled out his wallet, amused, and handed it over. He watched Gale’s lips fall open.

“What, did you get them to use your headshot or something?” he asked incredulously.

“No,” Randy laughed, “that’s the standard DMV picture.” He reclaimed the little rectangle and put it away again.

“That’s just sick.” Gale goggled and Randy just kept laughing.

Eventually, they remembered that Gale was buying a book and Randy was selling a book and finished going through the motions of the transaction. Gale mumbled something about getting back to Dylan, and Randy mumbled thanks for stopping by. Gale reached for his purchase, but Randy picked it up before he could. Walked around the counter and stood behind Gale. Raised up on his toes and pressed his lower body lightly into Gale’s, while slipping the bag into his hand at his side.

“I think you’ll enjoy it,” Randy whispered. “I _promise_ you.”

Once Gale had somehow made his way outside without embarrassing himself, he took out his cell phone and called Dylan.

“Hey… No, I’m fine… I just wanted to ask what you want for dinner… and also tell you that…” He swallowed. “I’m ready for round two.”


	7. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Randy tops Gale, Gale and Randy talk, and Gale and Dylan fight.

  


“Are you sure?”

Warm breath on his shoulder spilled to the side of his neck, made shivers everywhere, and melted layers of apprehension under the skin. Helped him tune out the voice inside that screamed _danger_ and _shouldn’t_ , leaving only _safety_ and a whisper of _too late_.

Gale nodded into the sheets.

Randy palmed the cheeks of Gale’s ass and brushed over the smooth skin with reverence, feeling so lucky that he was being invited in. He knew that some of what they had done together Gale was likely to have experienced in _some_ form. Rimming, possibly, given or received. As kinky as Dylan was, he wouldn’t be at all surprised if she had gotten him to fuck her ass before. Shit, he wouldn’t even be surprised if she had gotten out her bag of toys and tried to… reciprocate.

But the one thing he knew for sure was that Gale had never been fucked by cock. Never by a man. He would be the first… probably _only_. Because Gale wanted him to be.

That thought was enough to sink Randy’s forehead into miles of gorgeous back, just to steady himself. Before Gale could ask, he pulled himself up again. He took the bottle of lube he’d brought, opened it, squirted generously into his hands. Warmed, he slathered his condom-covered cock with one hand and worked the lube in and around the tiny opening with the other. He pushed a finger inside, gently, just to test the waters. Felt the slow slide, felt the squeeze, and felt Gale continuously tense and relax as the finger moved. When the tensing seemed to come with retreat, rather than entrance, Randy decided it was time.

He silently guided Gale’s lower body to kneel, ass up, upper body bent forward, thinking how he’d never been so hard in his life and praying he could hold on. He pressed the tip of his dick to Gale’s hole and tried not to hold his breath as he gripped hips and thrust in.

Gale made a choked sound at the pain. Randy ran soothing touch over his shoulders and down his spine, whispered a quiet “shhh” without even meaning to, and waited for both of them to… recover. He was only about halfway in. He had known Gale would be extra tight, but… _God_. Randy wasn’t even sure he could move.

His body didn’t give him a choice. His hips were drawn to Gale like a magnet, pushing his cock deeper until the resistant muscle gave and took him. When balls met soft spread skin, Randy celebrated by dropping a kiss just under tan shoulder blade. Wet lips leaving a print and teeth digging in a little.

He could hear a similar but exaggerated wet smack of mouths, see the twist of Gale’s head, and knew Dylan was shoving her tongue down Gale’s throat. He could see her… a mess of naked limbs and perfect bed hair just beyond the outlines of his lover’s body. It wasn’t like he wasn’t all too aware that he and Gale were not alone. But Randy focused so completely on Gale that he was mostly able to block out her presence, like he would a mosquito buzzing in the background.

The tinny hum of her vibrator had been such an accurate sound.

But apparently she’d gotten bored, or already gotten off, and was on the hunt for something Gale could give her. Randy knew Gale didn’t pretend Dylan wasn’t there like he did. He knew she was his girlfriend and she turned him on, and that he needed her familiarity to keep him relaxed. Kissing her was probably the only thing keeping him from freaking out right now. He wanted Gale to have whatever or whoever made him happy, right now and beyond. Randy just wished that could be him.

Randy wanted to _make_ it him. He picked up his pace, pulling back and pounding into Gale faster and harder than before. He heard a deep moan and the wet smack of mouths parting. He saw Gale’s head fall sharply forward, too overcome to continue kissing Dylan. Too overcome with pleasure… Randy was giving him.

The thought of that was so heady, it fueled Randy even further. He curled his hand around Gale’s dick and stroked. He fucked him harder, Gale’s ass pushed back, and he just gave more. Gave until Gale’s legs gave way beneath them and he was stretched out along the warm, damp skin, still buried, still fucking. More subtle now. Grinding, slight circles… finding every lonely nerve.

Randy felt like he’d found something he couldn’t even have guessed from his body’s initial reaction to this man. Inside was tight and hot and amazing, but more than that. It was like he now had two places in the world where he knew he was _made_ to be… the stage, and Gale Harold.

A soft but jarring brush against Randy’s arm turned out to be Dylan’s foot. He tried not to think about it. He fixed his eyes on almost nonexistent freckles on Gale’s back. But even with a face full of snatch, Gale was still the most beautiful thing ever. Especially when his hand snuck back to crawl fingers in between Randy’s and hold on.

Randy stretched to kiss Gale’s neck and press his face into fragrant, tender skin, tasting his heartbeat, so fast. Feeling their breaths crashing together… Wanting to crash together… Nearing impact.

A distant, careening alto couldn’t take anything from the explosion of baritone that quaked through Gale. Muscular legs squeezed. He was pure, deep surrender, surrounding Randy. Splattering fingers with cum and crushing fingers with the need to stay bound to this earth, to not spin off into space.

Randy started to pull out when the pleasure threatened to overtake him. Maybe escaping feeling too much… before he could never feel it again. But he’d barely moved when Gale released his hand and dug fingernails into Randy’s ass, holding him inside.

“No,” he growled.

And the sound of wanting mixed with the sweet sting to his flesh set off sparks that burned his body down… flames licking, whipping, the force knocking him forward instead of back… into Gale… long, slow, drawn-out and much too fast… until Randy had come so hard, he was only ashes, spread and cooling on his lover’s frame.

Gale’s head turned, watching as Randy pulled out, but he wouldn’t kiss the mouth that appeared before his. Not with his lips coated with Dylan. Felt guilty, and so brought a hand up to wipe her away. But it dropped quickly, from guilt again, aware of her eyes on him.

Then Randy’s fingers were covering both of their lips with the cum that dripped from them, and Randy was kissing him, tasting only Gale.

*****

Dylan disappeared into the bathroom for a while after, so Gale followed Randy to his car. Jeans pulled on and hands in pockets. Eyes mostly on the ground. Walking… carefully.

“You okay?” Randy asked, forcing himself to smile like everything was casual and he was unaffected.

Gale responded shyly. “Guess I will be, huh?”

“See, that’s why I usually top.”

“Yeah?” Gale’s eyes came out of shadow. “Might’ve surprised me before, but not now.”

“Thank you, I think.” Randy played with the driver door handle. “I just want to say… I think you’re amazing. Not a lot of straight guys would be willing to… try this.” He wasn’t sure he believed anymore that Gale was straight, exactly, but he couldn’t afford to think any other way.

Gale laughed a little, awkwardly. “Yeah, I’m… unique.”

Randy wanted to hug him again… _something_ … but he was afraid to this time. So, he got in his car. He turned the key and saw Gale waving at him to put down the window, which he did.

“Why did you agree to… the first time… if you usually top?”

“Because it was you,” Randy answered without hesitation. Then he smiled. “I’d do it again, too.”

Gale dug his toe into the dirt and watched the car drive away.

He’d just given himself to Randy. And the most fucked up part was that he’d done it completely sober.

*****

“You’re from Georgia? No shit!”

About a week later, it was early evening, and the boys were sitting on the front steps of Gale and Dylan’s place, smoking cigarettes and rehearsing Randy’s lines.

The three had decided to get together again, and Randy had come over early to informally rehearse a bit with Dylan. But she was out, shopping or something, and Gale had offered to fill in. Instead of reading “Karen,” which just made Randy giggle, he helped him practice scenes with the “Ty” character. One of the words had come out of Gale’s mouth with an unexpectedly Southern flavor, which had led to mention of Georgia and Randy’s exclamation.

“Yeah. Is that shocking?”

“I’m from Georgia, too!”

Gale did an old-fashioned double take. “No shit?”

“That’s what I said!”

“I wouldn’t have guessed. Although, I don’t know… you got the manners.”

“Well, I wasn’t born there, but that’s where I mostly grew up. Went to school… Pace.”

“Atlanta… Fuck, you really were close to home.”

“I told Dylan.” Randy’s uncontrollable grin scrunched into questioning. “I wonder why she never mentioned that you…”

“Yeah… I wonder.”

“I appreciate you doing this, by the way. You’re a natural at it.” Gale just shrugged, so Randy kept on. “No, you’re really good. Why don’t you act in Serendipity’s plays?”

“… Nah. I’m not born for it like you and Dylan. Besides, I don’t think she’d like it.”

“Why wouldn’t she?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Mostly I just figure the world doesn’t need another actor. Better I stick with carpentry, fixing bikes, things I know I can do.”

“You don’t have to pick one or the other, you know.” Randy’s hand fell to Gale’s knee, not thinking about it.

Gale looked at the hand, then up to flirty blue. “You’re saying I can straddle the line? Have fun on both sides?”

“For as long as you can get away with it, why not? Until you pick my side.”

Gale blinked, a little thrown, but then laughed. Randy reluctantly removed his hand, laughing as well.

“So, what do you want to do, Randy? Are you gonna be happy with used books and small-time shows the rest of your life?”

“No. I want to be on Broadway. Actually make my living as an actor someday. Live in the city. I’d be there now if I could afford it.” His eyes and voice were full of stars. Looking around, he added quickly, “But I like it here.”

“I’m sure you’ll get there.”

“Thanks, Gale.”

“You’re welcome… Now, you want any more rehearsal out of me? ‘Cause it’s getting dark.”

“Yeah, I guess page 22...”

“Why are you squinting like that?”

“Oh… like you said, it’s getting dark.”

“No, you were doing it before, I just didn’t ask. You think maybe you need glasses?”

“No,” Randy sighed, reaching into the front pocket of his bookbag and pulling out the hated frames. “I have them already.”

“Well, put ‘em on!”

“I don’t want to.”

“… Okay, now I have to see.” Gale grabbed the glasses and held Randy in place by the back of the neck, managing to slip them onto his face, amidst protest. He laughed at Randy’s pout. He looked like the hot captain of the debate team. Gale took a sidepiece between his fingers and straightened the glasses unnecessarily. “You look good.”

Randy’s fingers landed on Gale’s. “Thank you…”

Dylan’s car pulled into the driveway just then, and the boys moved apart. Gale stood to greet her, with a kiss and smile, and take her grocery bag.

“What did I miss?” she asked, a definite edge to her voice, and didn’t wait for the answer before stormily breezing inside.

*****

 _

Much later that night, after Randy left…

_

“If you think Randy is shy or needs you to speak up for him, you have got the wrong impression, Gale! He’s always full of opinions at rehearsal! Never hesitates to say when he doesn’t like something!”

“This is different, Dylan. You know he’s gay. You know he doesn’t want you touching him. Why did you keep doing it?”

“Maybe to see the reaction I would get.” But from the look in her eyes, he didn’t think she meant Randy’s.

“Just don’t do it anymore… if we even do this anymore.” His voice faded out, unsure how long things would continue. “The deal was you and me, and me and him, but not…”

“Yeah, that was _supposed_ to be the deal, wasn’t it? But that’s not how it turned out.”

Gale stared at her, finding no concrete accusations but feeling caught. “Just… stop.”

He slept on the couch.

*****

The next night, after a day mostly tense and silent, Dylan was a bit drunk and very horny. She persuaded Gale to bed, kissing him, rubbing herself against him. His hands floated at his sides at first, but she grabbed them and placed them firmly on her breasts. His body seemed to respond to her efforts, but suddenly he was pushing her away… gently, but she still felt something bruise.

“I’m tired, okay?” he muttered, rolling away onto his side.

She stood up shakily, hand to her head, beginning to laugh hysterically at how unfunny her life was. “You’re _tired_ … Oh my God.” She walked around the bed until she could yell at his face. “Yeah, _that’s_ why you’re not interested in sex! You’re tired! It’s not because _Randy’s_ not here!”

He said nothing.

“I’d offer my ass, but I don’t think it’d be the same… Maybe I should fuck you with a strap-on, huh? Maybe you’d like that better…”

He said nothing as she stumbled out of the room, still spewing anger and self-pity.

“Maybe then you could pretend.”


	8. Chapter Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys take a little trip.

  


“What would you think if I talked to Travis about being an understudy?”

Dylan’s coffee cup paused on the way to her mouth. “Why would you want to do that?”

“Just figured it couldn’t hurt,” Gale replied, not liking having to explain himself.

Serendipity was a small and very dedicated theatre and didn’t generally need understudies. In the rare event that someone couldn’t go on, there was always a tech who knew the lines and could fill in. Gale had never done it, but Randy had gotten him thinking about maybe offering.

“Probably wouldn’t have to do anything, but there’s not really anybody to go on for Tom or Booker if they can’t. Except maybe Travis, but he’s the director.”

“So, do you want to play my uncle/husband or my father/brother/lover? That’s kinky, even for us.” He didn’t quite miss the roll of her eyes.

“Dylan.”

“Since when are you interested in acting?”

“Maybe since always. I don’t know. I’m not talking about a fucking career.”

“That’s good. I never would have gotten involved with you if you were an actor. Two actors in a relationship never works.”

“You don’t want me to do it, then?” Gale wasn’t sure he gave a fuck at this point. He just wanted to know where her head was at.

“Don’t be silly, Gale. You should. Really.” Dylan rinsed her cup and placed it in the sink. When she turned around, her smile was plastic. “I have to go.”

“Where are you going?”

“That acting workshop… I told you about it.”

“I don’t think you did.”

“Oh. Well, it’s in Elmira. It’ll probably last all day.”

“You’re doing that… today?” Things had been pretty strained between them for the past couple of days, but he still couldn’t believe she was taking off.

“Today _is_ when it is. It’s a one-time only workshop.”

“Who has a workshop on a Monday?”

“Cliff Osmond. He’s a legend visiting from L.A.”

Gale shrugged. “Can’t miss that.” There was sarcasm in his words, but he wasn’t sure she heard it.

Dylan stepped up to him and kissed him briskly on the cheek. “I’ll call you when I get out, okay?” He nodded and walked her to the door. She picked up her purse, her shoulder bag, her keys, then tilted in the doorway, regarding him. “What are you doing today?”

“Not much,” he answered truthfully. “Have fun.”

It was just a day, he thought as the sound of the car faded. Happy fucking birthday to me.

*****

It was almost noon when Gale heard a knock that by now he recognized, so he wasn’t too incredibly shocked to open the door and find Randy. But the cupcake in his outstretched hand, bearing the flickering _#1_ candle, was a surprise.

“What are you…?”

“Happy birthday!”

Gale smiled in spite of himself, even as he demanded, “How the fuck did you know?”

“You think I really needed to see your driver’s license to sell you a book? Please, Gale.” Randy walked inside, bumping Gale’s hip, and set the cupcake down on a small table in the entryway. “You mentioned, uh… the first night… that you had a birthday soon. So, I made sure to find out how soon.”

“You’re a sneaky one, Randy.” He dipped a finger into the top of his treat and sucked off the chocolate. “This is damn good.”

“I made it, thank you,” Randy beamed proudly, trying not to stare at Gale with his finger in his mouth.

“You made one cupcake?”

“No, I may have eaten one or two… or three,” he admitted, laughing. “I also dropped a couple. You’re lucky that one survived.”

“I’m sure it’s the best one.” Gale smiled, realizing Randy had managed to somewhat salvage a fucking lousy day. “Really… thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Randy reluctantly broke their eye contact and looked towards the door. “I should go, huh? You and Dylan probably have big plans.”

“She’s not here.”

“Oh. You meeting her out later?”

“No, she had something else to do today.”

Dylan was always with Gale… at least that’s how it seemed to Randy. But not today, of all days? He didn’t understand. “But it’s your birthday.”

Gale did a good impression of looking like he didn’t care. “It’s not like thirty-one is a big deal.”

“A birthday’s always a big deal. I wish I had something for you… besides the cupcake.”

Randy was sporting another memorable T-shirt. This one was sapphire blue… went nicely with his eyes… and said _Broadway Baby_ on it. Gale took in the shirt, and this man who made him smile, and made a decision. Then he bent towards his still lit birthday candle and blew it out.

“I just made a wish. So, whatever I ask you, you’ll say yes.”

Randy found he was ready to say yes, without knowing the question, so he nodded. Dylan was gone. Did Gale actually want to…?

“Get in the truck.” Gale grabbed his keys, his wallet, and took a big bite out of his tiny birthday cake. “I wished for a road trip. You and me.”

*****

Following a stop at the gas station down the road for a fill-up, snacks, and a new road map (because Gale’s old one was nearly unreadable from coffee stains) … plus many assurances from Randy that he did not have to work that day (he’d asked for the day off just in case he got the chance to spend time with Gale, but didn’t tell him that), and they were off.

“Um, where are we going?”

Gale glanced at Randy, who was nibbling a cheese puff, and back to the road. “Maybe you should have asked that before.”

“No, I trust you,” he said, without pause, turning to look out the window. “I would think that was obvious by now.”

The meaning of that flashed across Gale’s mind in the form of Randy beneath him, letting him…… but he quickly shut that out, nodding simple acceptance. “We live in New York. Where do you think we might go for a little fun? Take us about… four and a half hours.”

“We’re going to the city?” Randy had hoped, but he still couldn’t believe it.

“Yeah… if you put your seatbelt on, asshole.”

“Oops, sorry.”

Gale laughed and turned up the radio. As the trip went along, it seemed that Randy liked most of the same music he did. David Bowie’s “Fame” came on and he was treated to some rather interesting seated dancing from the passenger side. He also noticed that Randy had a really nice voice, which made Gale more reluctant than usual to sing along.

“What’s the matter? Don’t you like Santana and Rob Thomas? I know it’s a little Top 40, but still…”

“They’re fine, but that song got way overplayed.”

Randy started getting louder, stretching over towards the driver’s seat and tilting his head back, the seatbelt holding him up as he sang at Gale upside down. “ _You’ve got the kind of lovin’ that can be so smooth, yeah, gimme your heart, make it real, or else forget about it_.”

Gale playfully pushed Randy upright again. “You are silly, Harrison.”

“Yeah.” He looked thoughtful. “Except I’m usually not. People tell me all the time that I’m too serious.”

“So this is just for my benefit?”

“No, I think it’s by your association.” Randy smiled. It was true. He felt happy when he was with Gale. Not that he wasn’t happy generally, but he felt… freer maybe, and not just in the bedroom. Like a better version of himself.

Gale got quiet and Randy let him. The rest of the ride passed rather quickly in this sort of comfortable silence. They hit NYC and its accompanying traffic at just about the worst time -- near 5 pm. It took another hour to get into Manhattan and actually find a lot to park in. At last, Gale turned off the engine with a thankful sigh, then turned to Randy and realized he was asleep.

“Randy, wake up.”

Gale touched him lightly, one finger tugging on the neck of his shirt. Randy’s hand, which had lain curled against his chest, found Gale’s hand and closed around it, but he was still asleep.

“Fucking hell,” Gale cursed to himself, looking at their hands, the peace and perfection of Randy’s face, and out the windows… wondering what he was doing. He wasn’t even there to try and make something out of his birthday. He was there because he knew Randy loved it and he wanted to share it with him.

“What’s wrong?”

Randy’s eyes were open now, trying to solve Gale’s puzzled expression. Gale snapped out of it.

“Nothing’s wrong,” he said, brushing some orange cheese puff residue from the side of Randy’s mouth with one quick swipe of his thumb. “C’mon. We’re here.”

*****

“Fuck my birthday for being on a Monday!”

“Gale, you can’t help that. It’s okay.”

“You’re here, so you should see a Broadway show. I bring you on the one day of the fucking week when nothing’s playing.”

“It’s _your_ birthday, not mine! We should be doing what you want, not trying to make me happy.”

“That is what I want.”

Randy sucked in a breath and watched Gale pace outside the TKTS booth. Breathing in the life and excitement of Times Square, being so close to Broadway… with Gale… he _was_ happy. But he could tell Gale wouldn’t be unless he managed to make this happen.

“Okay, then,” Randy said, taking Gale by the sleeve and pulling him up to the booth’s window. “Let’s not give up.”

*****

While most shows on Broadway take Monday off, a few do have Monday shows to take advantage of the lack of competition. They ended up getting two tickets to an Arthur Miller play, _The Price_ , which Randy had read but never seen or acted in. He was excited, but Gale was even more so, to see the little bounce in Randy’s step.

They just had time to grab some food at a diner near the theatre. Randy lamented, around sips of the world’s best vanilla milkshake, that he wasn’t respectfully dressed for a show. Gale reassured him that there wasn’t a dress code, they both looked fine, and that his T-shirt’s nod to Broadway was the most respectful thing he could have worn.

It was this really interesting play about the importance of money versus integrity. There were only four characters, and all the actors were excellent. At the end, when they were taking their bows, Gale whispered to Randy over the applause.

“That’s gonna be you, you know.”

“You think so?”

He nodded. “Soon.”

*****

After the play, Randy was drawn to the music emanating from a piano bar across the street. A drink didn’t sound like a bad idea, so Gale went for it. It was a restaurant, too, and he prayed Randy was kidding when he said something about getting a real cake with a complimentary serenade.

The place was small and crowded, but delightfully smoky. As soon as they were seated, Gale took out his cigarettes and lit up. He was surprised when Randy didn’t follow suit, but blue eyes seemed to be focused on some woman who was leaning against the piano, trying to do the chanteuse thing. Gale thought briefly that she was attractive and a fair singer, but neither as good-looking nor talented as she obviously thought she was.

Gale ordered a beer and was surprised again to hear Randy pipe up a request for a whiskey shooter.

“Whoa.” Gale watched Randy knock back the shot without a cough or even a grimace, and he patted his back in admiration. “Where’d that come from?”

“Just a little liquid courage,” Randy answered, then hopped up and made his way through the tables to the piano. He said something to the player, who was on a break, and then returned to the bar.

“Are you…?”

Randy shushed him with a smile. “Quiet. That old guy’s about to sing.”

They sat through _Old Guy_ ’s rendition of “The Impossible Dream” from _Man of La Mancha_ , followed by a girl of about eleven (Gale wondered why she was even up, let alone in a bar) singing both “Castle on a Cloud” from _Les Miserables_ and her favorite Madonna song. Gale was long ready to leave, but he let the fact that he was pretty sure he knew someone more entertaining was soon to go up keep him shut up and sitting. And he was rewarded when “Randy Harrison!” was called.

Randy slipped away and was at the piano before Gale could even say anything. Gale smiled supportively and steeled himself for the “Happy birthday to you” sing-along he was no doubt about to be treated to.

“This is the one song I actually heard you sing today, so I figure you must like it.” Randy was talking to Gale, but he kept his eyes on the microphone. “Thank you for… everything.”

And then he started to sing.

__

_Another night slowly closes in_  
_And I feel so lonely_  
_Touching heat freezing on my skin_  
_I pretend you still hold me_  
_I’m going crazy, I’m losing sleep_  
_I’m in too far, I’m in way too deep over you_  
_I can’t believe you’re gone_  
_You were the first, you’ll be the last_

Gale’s cigarette had burned to his fingertips and he couldn’t manage to swallow his beer. He was transfixed and holding his breath watching… listening to Randy.

__

_Watching shadows move across the wall_  
_I feel so frightened_  
_I wanna run to you, I wanna call_  
_But I’ve been hit by lightning_  
_Just can’t stand up for fallin’ apart_  
_Can’t see through this veil across my heart, over you_  
_You’ll always be the one_  
_You were the first, you’ll be the last_

Randy’s voice was clear and tender. The room was filled with people, all listening, impressed, but there was really only the two of them. Randy trying not to look at Gale, afraid his voice would leave him. Gale unable to look away, and afraid to think about any meaning the chosen song might hold beyond what Randy had said.

__

_Wherever you go, I’ll be with you_  
_Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you_  
_Whenever you need someone to lay your heart and head upon_  
_Remember, after the fire, after all the rain_  
_I will be the flame_  
_I will be the flame_

When the song was over, the room became loud with applause. Gale didn’t realize until it had died down that he hadn’t clapped. He’d been too… what? He felt too hot to be frozen. _Fuck…_

“Poor thing,” he heard Randy saying. “Sorry I kept you here so long. W-we can go now.”

He saw fear in Randy’s eyes that hadn’t been there when he’d been up in front of all those people, probably because Gale still hadn’t spoken or acknowledged what had just happened. He started to put money down for the drinks, found that Randy already had, and got up to follow him out.

The few paces of distance that Gale had left between them had given some guy… curly, brown hair, mid-20’s… an admirer of Randy’s performance and _more_ … the opportunity to come up to Randy and start hitting on him. The guy touched his arm unnecessarily as he gushed compliments.

“You looked great up there. And you sounded amazing.”

Gale’s eyes narrowed and he closed the gap between them quickly, putting an arm around Randy and addressing his fan. “Yes, he did. And he was singing to _me_.”

The guy had the decency to look apologetic and slink off. Gale walked Randy along, not stopping to look at him until they were outside. Then he was the one who looked apologetic.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why I did that. Maybe you wanted to… If you want to go back and find that guy…”

Gale’s arm had left Randy’s shoulders. Randy wanted it back. He put an arm around Gale’s waist and smiled up at him.

“Nope. I’m good.”

When he felt that strong arm fall around his shoulders again, he really was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Lyrics from “Smooth” by Santana f./ Rob Thomas, and “The Flame” by Cheap Trick)


	9. Chapter Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys get closer. And then, all good things must...

  


After walking around the New York City streets for a little while longer, Randy risked ending the beautiful dream by telling Gale it was almost one a.m. Though he knew driving back at that point might not be the smartest idea, since they’d both been drinking and were tired, he nearly fell over when Gale suggested they spend the night. Randy wasn’t ready to go home yet, so he took a deep breath and agreed.

Gale managed to find a nice but fairly economical (for New York) hotel not too far from where the truck was parked, and the argument over whether or not Randy would be shelling out money for his own room was saved by the fact that there was only one room available… a single.

Randy wandered away, figuring they would leave… either find another hotel, or head for the truck and give the four plus hour drive a try after all… but ended up following Gale, in a haze, to the elevator, up two floors, and into a room.

*****

Randy sat on the bed, staring at but not really watching the TV he had turned on because there were too many questions in the silence. Gale was in the bathroom. He’d taken his cell phone in there, probably to call Dylan, but Randy hadn’t heard any talking. Now he could hear Gale brushing his teeth (courtesy of the little bag of toiletries they’d gotten from the front desk) just over the sound of his own heart pounding as he wondered what he should do. He didn’t know where he was supposed to sleep or what to wear when he did. They didn’t have spare clothes with them, so Randy didn’t really want to sleep in the clothes he would have to wear again the next day.

Before he could change his mind, he pulled off his T-shirt and jeans, folding them and placing them on a chair. Left in only black boxer briefs, Randy pulled back the covers of the bed and settled himself under them. He knew it was ridiculous to be modest around a man who had seen him naked from nearly every angle, but the intimate ways in which they knew each other could also be good reasons why modesty was needed.

Gale walked back into the room, still wearing his T-shirt, but otherwise down to a pair of boxer shorts. He saw Randy in the bed and stopped, reaching for the buttons of the TV just for something to do. “You watching this?”

That made Randy laugh, because it was an infomercial for some stupid juicer, and he wasn’t even sure what language it was in. “No.” He sobered as soon as the room was quiet again. “I can sleep in that chair if you want…”

“You wouldn’t get any fucking sleep in that thing, Randy,” Gale said. “You stay where you are. I’ll, uh… I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“What?” Randy held on to the pillow Gale tried to take. “This isn’t for my benefit, is it? Because it’s really not necessary. You paid for this bed, Gale, so you should… get in.” He peeled back the covers on the other side and made a space, unsure when in the last two minutes he had gotten brave.

“No, I’ll just…” Gale gestured to the floor, his intention left hanging, halfhearted.

Then Randy asked a question he knew he had no right to ask, but didn’t care. “Why are you afraid of me?”

Gale didn’t know what to say to that. He kept looking at the floor… he knew he didn’t want to sleep on… feeling Randy’s eyes on him. Finally, rather than answer the impossible question, he turned off the light and climbed into bed, just mumbling, “Goodnight.”

They lay there for a minute or two, Randy staring at the ceiling, Gale turned on his side away from him, before...

“I don’t want to go to sleep.”

Gale rolled over to his back. “Randy, it’s fucking late.”

“I know. But this has been the best birthday ever, and it wasn’t even mine.”

A deep smile spread across Gale’s face. “It was pretty great.”

“Yeah… I hope you didn’t mind the song. I tried to not look at you, so I wouldn’t embarrass you too much.” Well, that had been part of it. “It was just an impulse. Still trying to give you something.”

“You didn’t embarrass me… It was beautiful.”

Randy’s slow-building laughter was not the response to those words Gale had expected.

“What the fuck?”

“I’m sorry…” Randy propped up on one elbow to face Gale, still giggling. “Thank you. I’m not laughing at that, exactly. I just started thinking how weird our relationship is.”

Gale mulled over Randy’s words for a beat. That was one way to put it. “Yeah… it’s different, huh?”

“What’s really weird is that it’s not weird. I mean… the way we’ve mostly gotten to know each other, up ‘til now… I’m surprised you even want to talk to me, like we were friends. But you surprise me all the time, Gale. And I feel like I could tell you anything.”

“Okay, then. Tell me something.”

“What?”

Gale turned to face Randy. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

The actual first thought that popped into Randy’s head, as he looked at Gale’s lips moving, probably wasn’t what Gale had in mind. But he said it, anyway.

“I love the way you sound when you come.”

Hazel eyes glazed slightly and refocused on the pillowcase below.

“I’m serious. It’s not always a good sound. I was with this guy for a while in college who made me feel like I was fucking Cookie Monster.”

That was possibly the oddest thing Gale had ever heard, and he fell back on his back and started laughing… getting louder when Randy started making sounds like a deep-voiced, overexcited Muppet, that were just too ridiculous to be uncomfortably sexual. Randy tried to hit him at one point, all in fun, but Gale grabbed his hand and held it, keeping it, resting just over Gale’s ribs.

“You’re not gonna do your impression of _me_ now, are you?”

“No, I couldn’t do you justice,” Randy said. “You tell me something now.”

Gale looked at the face across from him… ivory and luminous even in the mostly dark… and imagined how that face must look, lost in orgasm. He hadn’t really been able to see it yet. He was almost afraid to.

A little moonlight spilled under the drawn curtains and onto Randy’s skin, and Gale was reminded of something.

“I’ve never seen anybody reflect light like you do. First rehearsal I was working the lights, I remember being amazed… staring.”

Randy bit his bottom lip. “I know, I’m so pale. Hope I don’t blind the audience.”

“No, you’re… It’s like if we could shine a light just on you, then you could light up the whole rest of the stage by yourself.”

“Oh.” He squeezed Gale’s fingers. “Thank you.” Then he slid closer, a little closer, until his arm was lined up with the warmth of Gale’s arm, thigh was barely touching his thigh, and head leaned on his shoulder.

Gale thought he should probably move away, say goodnight again, go to sleep. Instead, he wrapped his other arm around Randy’s waist, pulled him close, and said, “You’re welcome.”

It felt so fucking good to just be like that, holding each other. Gale tried to keep his breathing steady when he realized just how little Randy was wearing under the covers. Randy knew Gale had to feel his erection against his hip and prayed it wouldn’t make him angry or scare him away. After a minute, he risked looking up to the other man’s face. Gale’s eyes were closed, but he definitely wasn’t asleep. He looked happy… yet sad, tension held in his mouth. Randy lifted his head and reached to touch those lips, smoothing it away. Leaning in… slowly… until their lips were maybe half an inch from each other’s.

“We can’t,” Gale said, voice somehow soft and gruff.

Randy saw that his eyes still hadn’t opened. He’d just felt him. “Why not?” The heat in the breath between them was intoxicating but not enough. “…I want to kiss you.”

Gale wanted to cry, or else crush his mouth to Randy’s before he could think of anything or anyone else. But, too late. “Dylan… It would be cheating without her here.”

Randy knew that name would have to come up eventually, but why did it have to be now? And why did Gale’s loyalty have to make him even more beautiful?

Hearing “Dylan” spoken made Randy take back an inch or so of the distance he had closed, but then it filled him with determination to make everything he could of this moment. He stretched one of his legs over Gale’s, and his body along Gale’s body, until he was resting on top of him. Looking down into surprised eyes. Feeling hardness that wasn’t his.

Gale swallowed hard, trying to find his voice. “What are you doing?”

Randy caressed and then gripped strong biceps, aligned their cocks and rolled his hips. “Not kissing you.”

Gale groaned, the pressure sweet and painful. His body had already been too aware of Randy, hard from just sharing the same bed, and this was too much. “Rand…”

“We don’t even have to try, Gale,” he whispered, pushing his pelvis forward again and earning a gasp this time. “It just happens… It’s just there.”

Hands claimed Randy’s hips. He worried that Gale would make him stop… try to make _it_ stop… but the eyes fixed on his said differently. Intense, needing. And the hands held on tight.

A couple of precise movements escalated slowly… and then very quickly… into desperate rutting. Trying to furrow deep into each other’s bodies without actually seeking entrance. Fucking without fucking. The underwear they still wore, and was understood would stay on, rubbing against them both, adding to the friction. Sparks building to flame. They both wanted more, wanted to truly touch, but that was a line they weren’t crossing tonight.

Randy managed to slip his hands under Gale’s T-shirt and pull it up to just above his nipples, without falling out of the rhythm they had built up. When Gale felt the naked skin of Randy’s chest hot against his, he couldn’t believe how close to coming he already was. And he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, slow down. He raised his hips extra, tilting up so Randy would grind into his balls, and cried out when he did.

“Rand… please…”

“Say my name like that again.” Randy’s hands found their way to Gale’s face, holding like a gift.

“ _Rand_ …”

Focused and blue never left hazel and wild. “Always say it like that… always.”

A few more furious thrusts together, every nerve in Gale lit like a fuse, and he exploded, warm and wet, shaking and moaning. Just a few more, drowning in the sounds of Gale, and Randy followed, burying his face in sweaty, sweet-smelling neck.

Breaths took a minute to calm, to slow, to even. Then Gale spoke up, very quietly.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever come that fast, in my boxers, and been happy about it.”

Randy giggled, his nose puffing little bursts of air against Gale’s neck that cooled and tickled. He pressed a kiss to the skin before pulling back just enough to rest his head on Gale’s chest. “I’m happy, too.”

Gale was happy but… fucking confused. Terrified, even. He’d been doing his best to not think too much about what he felt for Randy. He knew he liked him, thought he was a really good guy. He could even admit he found him attractive. But anything much beyond that was all tangled up with Dylan and her sex games, so it was easy to write off feelings that shouldn’t be there as being connected to Dylan, or just the result of a tricky situation.

It was supposed to be easy.

Randy felt the confusion in Gale’s body and interpreted it as him wanting to get up… maybe even escape. “You.. um, you want to go clean up, huh. Sorry, I’ll…” The tightening of Gale’s embrace stopped Randy’s words.

He didn’t know what the fuck would happen tomorrow, but for now, he was pretending it was still his birthday.

“No… I’m good.” Underwear wet and cum sticky between them, Gale couldn’t remember being more comfortable. More so when he felt Randy smile against his skin.

“We’ve never slept together before.”

Gale brushed fingers through Randy’s hair. “It’s my present to myself.”

*****

“Are you and Dylan going to get married?”

Approximately six hours and two (unfortunately) separate showers later, they sat in the room eating what of the continental breakfast downstairs Gale had managed to carry up… a couple of bagels, pastry, juice. Coffee was percolating in the maker by the sink.

Randy didn’t want to ask the question, but he needed to know.

Gale’s chewing slowed in surprise, but he was able to answer honestly. “No.”

“Just like that?”

“I don’t really see marriage as necessary, in general. And Dylan’s not the type, either. She thinks she’s too old to get married but too young to _be_ married.”

Randy almost choked on his danish from the nonsense of that. “How old is she?”

“Twenty-eight. But her resume says she’s twenty-five.”

Gale seemed to think it was funny, so Randy let himself laugh. But he still had questions. “You’ve been together a long time, though… right?”

“Yeah.”

“So… you love her?”

Gale dropped what was left of his bagel. Wasn’t really hungry anymore. “I… Dylan and I don’t say… that.”

“What? Why not?”

“We just never have.”

“Does that mean you… don’t?”

“Love Dylan?… No, I do.”

“Oh… of course you do.” Randy’s disappointment made him feel like a fool. He didn’t know how he could have anticipated a different answer. “If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have… in the first place. I’d still just be that guy who bumped into you.”

“Maybe.”

“I know I was the first… well, a couple of major firsts for you… but you weren’t exactly _innocent_ when it came to other guys, were you?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Just a sense I got. Probably around the time you started rimming me.”

“Ah.” Gale was pretty sure he didn’t blush, but he felt like he was, at Randy’s unabashed grin. “Yeah, a few times… things happened. College, or… fuck, I lived in San Francisco before I moved out here.”

Randy’s brows gathered almost studiously now. “So, what did you do?”

Gale shrugged. “Mild experimentation. Never a regular thing. Couple of blow jobs…”

“Given or received?”

“Both.”

“Really? You haven’t done that to me yet. Should I be offended?”

“No, just put that at the top of your wish list for next time.” And he would watch Randy’s face for every second, because even last night, he hid his face at the end.

“Well, whatever you’d done before… I’m glad you saved the best for me.”

Long look… broken. Gale’s cell phone rang, interrupting the moment. Dylan. Randy went to wash the cream cheese filling off his hands, taking longer than necessary, to give them privacy. When he walked back out, he found Gale looking pensive.

“What did she say?”

“She kept apologizing. For forgetting my birthday, and for worrying me.”

“Worrying you how?”

“Leaving me at home alone all night. I guess the workshop ran long, she made friends with some woman there who lived nearby, they went out drinking and ended up crashing at the woman’s house. She said she passed out before she could call me.”

“Wait, are you saying she doesn’t know about our road trip? I thought you called her last night.”

“I did. Her voice mail picked up, and I… decided not to leave a message.”

“So, she still doesn’t know?”

“Not yet… Shit, she’s gonna see your car.”

Randy didn’t enjoy that instant of feeling like the dirty little secret. But, bottom line, Gale was his friend. He didn’t want there to be trouble on account of him. “Let’s get the show on the road, then. Maybe we’ll get a miracle and she won’t.”

*****

They did get a miracle. Well, maybe not water into wine. But they made good time, got back just after noon, and Dylan wasn’t there. They managed to get a private, sweet… though conspicuously free of touching… goodbye, and Randy drove away.

New York City was like a moment out of time, so there was nothing to feel guilty about.

Gale was in the process of changing his shirt when Dylan arrived, not more than five minutes later. She rained him with kisses and “I’m sorry,” over and over. Then she sat him on their bed and asked him to close his eyes.

“Okay, open… Do you like it?”

She was holding up a 16 x 20” black and white photo of a man racing a beautiful, very old-fashioned motorcycle.

“Yeah, I do. Dylan, what…?”

“It’s your… belated birthday present. I know it doesn’t make it okay, but I found this at a shop in Elmira. That’s why I was so late getting back. I had to get it framed. I just thought it felt like you. The black and white, the bike… Now, was the sales guy just feeding me a line, or is that really one of your… Motor Goosy things?”

He smiled at her mispronunciation. “Moto Guzzi… and yes.”

“Oh, good. It’s so old, though. 1935, I think he said. Does that make it cool, or just… ugly?” She wrinkled her nose, looking at it, apparently not impressed herself.

“It’s very cool, Dylan. I love it.”

She leaned the frame against the wall so she could join him on the bed, straddling his lap and kissing him deeply, diving for forgiveness.

Because she was soft and familiar, gorgeous, displaying a rare glimpse of insecurity… because she’d done this thoughtful thing for him… and was contrite, when he was the one keeping things hidden… he kissed her back, laid her down, and made love to just her.

Dylan wondered at his lack of underwear but told herself he was that anxious for her return.

Gale rebelled against whatever it was inside of him making him feel like he was now cheating on…

*****

“That was _amazing_.” Dylan’s voice drizzled slow like honey, warm with satisfaction… then quickened with teasing. “I guess old age hasn’t ruined you yet.”

“Watch it, little girl.” Gale tickled her bare skin, and her laughter sounded like bells. It was nice, this lack of anger between them.

“Okay, okay…” Chin on his chest, she held up her hands. Then, the mention of Gale’s age took her mind to something she’d seen as she came in the house. “Where did that #1 candle come from?”

The sudden flash of Randy behind Gale’s eyes jarred him, but he didn’t let it show. Hopefully, he could answer that question without opening the door for more difficult ones. He cleared his throat. “Randy came by yesterday. He’d found out it was my birthday. Brought me a cupcake.”

“That was… sweet of him,” Dylan said carefully. She was happy enough to manage a smile. “You know what? Speaking of Randy?”

Gale had no clue what she was going to say. Unless she had plans for the next time the three of them got together. “What about him?”

“I don’t think we need him anymore.”


	10. Chapter Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gale responds to Dylan's decision with one of his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The play, "Dangerous Angels," is by Scott C. Sickles.

  


“ _I don’t think we need him anymore.”_

Those seven words kept echoing in Gale’s head, growing louder with every reverberation. They had haunted him the rest of the day and kept him awake most of the night. Mostly thinking the same thing over and over.

 _Fucking speak for yourself, Dylan._

Then feeling guilty again.

Gale should have known this was coming. The three of them were not a “couple.” Randy had been brought in for some fun, something different. To spice things up, but they’d gotten a little too… spicy.

It was time to stop, anyway. Now he and Dylan could get back to their normal life. That’s what he’d tried to tell himself after she made that declaration, and once or twice he had almost thought he was sold.

Except that, thirty-one hours later, he still felt like he wanted to punch something when he thought of not having Randy anymore.

He sat in the truck and curled his fingers around his souvenir… the birthday candle, which still smelled of chocolate. Still represented something he couldn’t let go of. Seeing Dylan approaching in the side mirror, he quickly hid it in the glove compartment, tucked underneath the new road map, and relaxed back in his seat.

*****

“I can’t believe the play’s next week,” she said excitedly, when they were almost to the theatre.

“Everything’s running pretty smoothly, even with Holly out.” The lighting chief was pissed to be missing the show, but she was a day from getting her labor induced, so she didn’t really have a choice. “And you guys are ready to go on. You and…” Gale hesitated to bring up the name. “You and Randy have a real good rapport onstage.”

She laughed low, just once, like she had a scratch in the back of her throat, and bit back the comment she wanted to make. “I guess I’ll have a talk with him after rehearsal’s over.”

Gale’s eyes flicked to Dylan and back to the road, asking with sarcasm, “What, you’re gonna _break up_ with him?”

“Something like that. I thought about waiting until the play’s done, but I’d rather get it out of the way now.”

“But… there’s nothing to end, Dylan. You honestly think he has expectations of more from us?”

“Not _us_ ,” she said under her breath, and then to Gale… “Can you honestly tell me he doesn’t?”

He was quiet. “Just… let me do it. Let me talk to him.”

He was protecting Randy again. Gale barely knew the guy, really, yet it seemed compulsive with him. Dylan didn’t like it, but she also didn’t want to piss Gale off now that they were getting along so well. “Fine,” she sighed, “do it your way.”

Gale pulled into the parking lot, thinking that this was not _his way_. He didn’t know what the fuck he was going to say to Randy, and he didn’t really want to figure it out.

*****

“ _God damn it! This must be the work of his God. Nothing else could be this cruel.”_

“ _What is it? What’s wrong?”_

“ _I try to salvage one moment - one, single fucking moment! - and those angels rise from the ice and take it back!”_

They were rehearsing the scene towards the end of the play where Karen realizes that the one nice memory she had of her dead father… wasn’t.

“ _It wasn’t him! It wasn’t even…”_

As Carolyn, the actress playing Karen’s mother, began her lines, Randy embraced Dylan as she broke down and escorted her offstage.

“Stop!” shouted Travis. “Sorry, Carolyn. Stop for a second. Dylan, Randy… what was that?”

While Dylan shook off her character’s tears, Randy responded. “What’s wrong? I thought that was good.”

“The lines were good. Dylan, you were amazing. But, the holding each other at the end was too stiff and cold. You looked like you’d rather be anywhere else. You’ve read the script, right? _‘This should be done lovingly, giving the impression of two people who know one another’s emotions intimately.’_

“Oh, I know his emotions intimately. Not as intimately as _some_ , but much more than I care to.”

Randy stared at Dylan in disbelief at what she was alluding to. Here. During rehearsal. Everyone was staring at her, actually, though more mildly confused than shocked. Randy’s eyes darted to the light booth, knowing Gale was seeing and hearing, though he couldn’t see him.

“Dylan?” the director prompted, seeking clarification.

“Nothing, Travis. Let’s just do it again. We’ll do it better. Won’t we, Randy?”

“Yeah. No problem.”

“Okay. Dylan, honey, I know it’s draining for you. Go back as far as you need to get to that emotional place again. Just remember, I need to see comfort and deep love. You’re each other’s best friend in the world.”

They ran the scene once more, Randy and Dylan using all their talent to be completely in the minds and bodies of their characters. By the time Carolyn had finished her big closing monologue, the actors were exhausted, but Travis was happy.

“Great job, everyone! Dylan…” He had joined them on the stage and gone up to his star actress, doing that double cheek-kiss thing. “You’re beautiful.”

Randy was bending down to get his bag when he noticed… Travis was totally groping Dylan’s ass.

They weren’t otherwise behaving unlike they frequently did… standing close, talking in low voices… but this couldn’t be normal, could it? He looked around. The others had left. Even if Gale was watching, he couldn’t see what Travis’ hands were up to from his angle. And Randy couldn’t see Dylan’s reaction.

But then Travis was walking away, and Randy wondered briefly if he’d imagined it.

“Randy, could we talk for a minute?”

“Sure, Dylan.” He didn’t like how nervous he got when she said that. Anything Dylan wanted to talk to him about would either have to do with the play or Gale. As actors, even though she’d been with the theatre longer, he felt they were equals. In terms of Gale, she held way too much power.

She tucked her dark hair behind her ear and smiled. “I wanted to thank you for helping Gale celebrate his birthday. That was really adorable of you.”

Randy ignored her patronizing tone and was just… relieved, he supposed… that she didn’t seem to know all the ways in which they’d celebrated. “It was important.”

Dylan, in turn, ignored the way he pointed his words to dig at her forgetting of the day. “Gale and I both just want to thank you for everything. You know… our association after hours, away from the theatre. It was mutually beneficial for a while, but we don’t think we’ll be needing to get together with you again.”

Her voice was soft but as business-like as her words. It chilled Randy. She had hired him, and now she was firing him from his role as her boyfriend’s lover… perhaps, for playing the part too well.

“Oh… okay.” He felt sick and stupid, but what else was there he could say?

“Good. I’m glad it’s understood.”

“Wait, so… this is what Gale wants?”

“Of course it is. I’m still amazed I managed to persuade him to start this in the first place. He was extremely reluctant, even after the first time. But, he’ll do anything for me. And now, we’re in a better place than ever.”

“You are?”

“Oh, yes. Not only sexually, but… definitely that. Yesterday…” Dylan’s face took on an obscenely dreamy quality, remembering. “I think I’m _still_ coming.”

Just when Randy thought he was about to throw up, he saw Gale over Dylan’s shoulder, walking up to them. “I have to go… I’m late for work,” he mumbled and ran for the side exit.

“Oh, sorry. Bye, Randy.” She forced a smile she didn’t quite feel as she watched him make his escape, then turned at the tap of a hand on her back. “Hey, babe!”

“Dylan, what the fuck was that?” Gale had heard everything she’d said to Randy, and he was _pissed_.

“What was what?”

She was a good actress, but he wasn’t buying the innocent act. “Why were you saying that shit to Randy?”

“It was just the truth.”

“You were supposed to let me talk to him!”

“What difference does it make? I knew you didn’t really want to deal with it. I thought I’d save you the trouble.”

“You were deliberately trying to hurt him!”

“I was incredibly nice!” She really was a good actress. She even convinced _herself_ of what she was saying. “Why are you so fucking concerned with Randy’s possible hurt feelings, anyway? He’s a kid with a crush on you, Gale! The best thing we can do for him is hurt him so he can stop fooling himself and it can be over!”

Her words carried, filling the space, loud and ugly and wrong. “No,” he said. That was all he could think. “No.” He looked past her, to the door Randy had just disappeared through, and ran in his footsteps, praying he could still catch him.

*****

“Rand, stop…”

It had been a late evening rehearsal, and Gale was grateful for the lack of light that made Randy have trouble finding his keys in his bookbag.

“Don’t say my name like that,” Randy softly begged, leaning against his car. He didn’t want to hear Gale affirm what he’d just heard from Dylan.

“You told me always to…”

They saw the memory of two nights prior flash hotly in each other’s eyes. Randy looked away first. _You can’t invoke that with one breath and say goodbye with the next, Gale._

“Look, I’m sorry Dylan acted like that.” Gale’s hands sunk deep into his pockets, unsure what to say now that Randy was right in front of him. “But… you knew we couldn’t keep on like we were forever, didn’t you?”

“Believe me, I knew that. I didn’t _want_ to keep on like we were. I wanted…”

“I know,” Gale whispered. “I think I know. But, how was that ever gonna happen? I’m with Dylan, and… I’m not even…”

“I know! I fucking get it, okay?” _You love fucking me, but that’s just the exception that proves your straight rule._ He turned around, determinedly digging for his car key now and speaking to the door. “I got used to it, and I shouldn’t have. But I’m not going to follow you around, and I’ll try not to gaze at you adoringly anymore. You can relax. Outside of the play, I’m out of your life.”

“Rand, that’s not what I want.” Gale’s hand fled his pocket and reached, finding Randy’s arm and pulling him back around. Long fingers moved to cradle Randy’s cheek, to make him listen, make him see. “ _Please_ let me try to explain…”

Gale was so beautiful and clueless. His eyes so sad, so desperate. Hand so warm. Lips so plum and full and… _there_. So denied last time.

Randy kissed him. Hard. Grabbed Gale’s shoulders before he could stumble back, and pulled his weight into him, crashing them against the car. The element of surprise left Gale’s lips pliant, but they opened willingly before Randy’s tongue even swept inside.

The two men surrendered, finally, to whatever this was. Tasting, touching possibilities that had never been allowed.

Until Randy somehow broke away, nipping Gale’s bottom lip with his teeth, and taking the hand that had fallen from his face and pressing it to Gale’s chest.

“Explain that, Gale.”

Gale was breathing heavily. Heartbeat pounding so fast and hard, Randy could feel it through his hand.

“Explain to yourself how you’re feeling right now. And then explain to us both why you’re still with her.”

Having made his point, and not having the strength to be so close any longer, Randy tried again to leave. But he had trapped himself between Gale and the car, and Gale wasn’t going anywhere.

“Were you up on your toes? That’s so fucking cute.”

Randy rolled his eyes, so frustrated by this man and his weirdly inappropriate grin. Gale had kissed him back, hadn’t pushed him away, but now he was making fun of him. “Fuck off, Gale. And let me go.”

Gale just rested his forehead on Randy’s, hands on the car on either side of him, and said, “You’re… late for work?”

“No,” he admitted. “I just said that to get away.” He managed a look at his watch. “The shop closed fifteen minutes ago.”

“So, where are you going now?”

“Just… home.”

“Can I go with you?”

Randy had to take a second to make sure he’d heard that correctly, then another to find his voice. “You want to come home with me?” He searched Gale’s eyes for anything untrue and couldn’t even find confusion.

Gale answered by kissing him. Lips touched down lightly, but with promise. “Stop holding your breath, Rand. Yes.”

Randy breathed, laughed, his face lit with joy and disbelief… until he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. Gale followed his line of sight to the brick building behind them. Standing in the doorway, hand to her mouth, was Dylan. There was no surprise on her face, but she had the look of a lost little girl.

“Are you sure?” Randy whispered, now fully expecting him to run to her and start explaining how it wasn’t what it looked like. But Gale squeezed his hand instead, and he was reminded that this man didn’t bullshit like that.

Gale let go, but he didn’t walk to Dylan. He walked to his truck, pulled his keys out of his pocket, and stuck one in the lock, providing her with a ride. Then he looked at her and hurt for the tears in her eyes, sparkling under moonlight. Despite her ability to cry on cue, he knew these were real, and he knew how rarely she cried in real life. But he felt like he knew very little else about her anymore.

“You were wrong, Dylan,” he called sadly, making his way back to Randy’s car and joining him inside. He was a lot more than a kid with a crush. That was what Randy made _him_ feel like, actually. But Gale was learning courage to bet… they were both more. He needed to let himself find out.

Randy turned the key… that his shaking hands had dropped twice before he’d gotten the car unlocked… in the ignition. “Gale, do you know what you’re doing?”

“I hope I’m about to make love with you, Rand.”


	11. Chapter Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys get to be alone together... finally, truly *together*. Then Gale and Dylan have a confrontation.

  


Randy was torn between being embarrassed by his simple living conditions and feeling new love for every square inch of the too few square feet for what it would now be to him… the place where Gale Harold, finally, was only his.

“It’s just a one bedroom,” he said as Gale glanced around the small but perfectly nice apartment, before returning eyes and hands and mouth to Randy.

“That’s all we need.”

Randy was pretty sure he’d meant to offer a tour, even if there was very little to show. But how could he be expected to think when Gale was kissing him again and pulling his shirt out of his pants? He didn’t remember getting to the bedroom, but next thing he knew, they were falling onto the bed.

“Mm, Gale… wait,” he said, in gasps of breath. “I need to know…” Before he got completely swept away.

“What? What do you need, Rand?” Still kissing, words melted onto porcelain skin… cheeks… throat.

“How did we get here?”

Gale stopped and looked at him. “Fuck…” He tried to put the reins on his desire, sitting back a little. Randy obviously wanted to talk.

“I’m not trying to…” Randy didn’t want Gale to get the wrong idea. “I’m not putting this off, and I’m not even going to ask where it’s going. I want to be with you more than anything. _Anything_.” He dragged electrified lips over the slight 5 o’clock shadow of Gale’s chin. “I guess I’m just trying to understand how we got from you with Dylan, and me being dismissed… to here, and you saying you want to make love with me.”

Gale smiled sheepishly and ran a hand over his face. “Yeah… I’ve never even said something that corny to a woman. I don’t know why I inflicted it on you.”

Randy’s expression clouded slightly. “I thought you meant it.”

Fingers tightened on Randy’s waist as Gale’s forehead sank against his. “More than anything.”

“Are you sure? You realize you broke up with Dylan tonight, don’t you? It’s just you and me now.”

“I know.”

“What if I’m not enough?”

The worry in those blue eyes broke Gale’s heart. He shook his head. “You’re… I fucking want to touch you all the time, Rand.” He danced fingertips along Randy’s arm, craving even the most innocent contact. “I haven’t been able to get you out of my system since we started this. Even before then… I think since the first day we met.”

“When I almost knocked you down?”

“You were a knockout, all right.” Gale winked and felt himself relax when Randy giggled. “But somewhere along the line,” he continued very seriously, voice hushed but emphatic, “you also became my best friend. I tried to tell myself that was all… that I wasn’t addicted to you, and then that it was something I needed to overcome… but I know better now.”

Randy’s eyes were wet, and he wasn’t sure he could handle the answer to his next question. “What do you know?”

“That I’m yours.”

With those three words, the tears disappeared, and all that remained was Randy’s passion for this man. He straddled Gale’s lap and pushed him down to the mattress, quickly tugging off his T-shirt and then his own. He hurried to get Gale’s jeans off him, and Gale let him, but then grabbed his frantic hand.

“We’ve got time now, and nobody watching us. I want to appreciate every part of you like I never could before… and take you slow.”

Randy shivered, slowing with the gravity of that… stretching out on top of Gale’s body, and remembering being in the same position two nights earlier. Even finding release, there had been so much they had to hold back. He smiled. “I can kiss you now.” And not just to feed Gale his own cum, while _she_ watched and got off on it. But purely to kiss him.

He dug hands in dark hair and held on as he licked lightly along Gale’s lips, which opened a fraction at a time, hoping to coax Randy inside. Randy’s mouth hovered _just_ above his warmth, feeling breaths mingle and tasting sounds… exhalation and heartbeats and…

“Ran-…”

His mouth touched down and took Gale’s before the full syllable could even hit the air. His tongue dipped inside and found its other, velvety and wet… massaged and slid over, under… everywhere. Gale moaned into him, wrapped a hand around the back of Randy’s neck, and rolled them over, kiss never breaking. Knees hugging hips so as not to crush him. He held Randy’s face, cheeks soft and hot against his palms… sucked his tongue, sucked those incredible lips between his, skimmed his teeth across them.

Gale made himself pull away when he heard Randy whimper, thinking he needed oxygen. But when the sexy sound continued, Gale realized it was actually both of them, and that he had been grinding his dick, cotton-covered but getting harder and harder, into the top of Randy’s thigh… still clad in a frustrating layer of khaki. He dropped one more quick kiss to bitten lips, and then set about getting Randy naked.

“You’re… you really are _so_ …”

“What?” Randy asked nervously when he was done. Gale had seen him naked before, obviously, but he’d never looked at him like this… long and leisurely, where every pass of hazel over ivory could be felt like the lingering brush of a hand.

“Beautiful.” He hoped Randy wouldn’t prefer another word, because that was what he was. Lying there, offering himself to Gale. Flawless. Silken and masculine. Slight but strong, and grace even in stillness. He was beautiful.

Breath taken away, Randy couldn’t bring himself to speak, even before Gale started touching him. But then there were fingers combing through short hair, over the wild pulse beating in his throat, trailing down the center of his chest, tickling around his belly button and rubbing the flat tummy… and he just sighed and smiled.

The skin was soft and the definition not obvious, but when Gale pressed, he could feel the solid muscle behind it. Leaning forward, he placed a kiss on Randy’s abdomen that wandered lower… down the fine trail into dark blond curls, and onto the tip of the waiting cock. He’d stroked it, he’d been fucked by it, he’d even taken a taste… but he hadn’t worshipped it properly. That was going to change.

“I promised you ‘next time,’ didn’t I?” Gale murmured, resting on his side for a moment and tonguing Randy’s hipbone, making him squirm.

“I wouldn’t… hold you to that…” Randy did _not_ want to talk Gale out of sucking his dick, but he also didn’t want Gale to do it because he thought he had to. He’d had opportunities to do it before and never had, so Randy figured…

“I always wanted to, Rand.” Gale met his eyes, seeming to know what he was thinking. “Just… not with her watching.”

Randy understood, now relieved and really grateful they’d saved this for just them. He felt a rush of freedom… the third wheel had been taken off. “She probably would have wanted to _help_ ,” he said uneasily.

“Probably right… Okay, fuck, no more talk of _her_. You were hard as steel a second ago.”

He was still hard, but the very thought of Dylan had made Randy start to soften slightly. Soft laughs at how playfully put out Gale sounded soon turned to gasps when the strong hand curled around his length and gave a firm jerk.

“Lemme see what I can do to help.”

Gale’s lips just touched him, parting as they pushed over the head and pulled tight around it, fanning his tongue over the sensitive slit. Randy’s body stiffened and neck stretched with the new sensation. Gale looked up but could only see the younger man’s Adam’s apple pointing to the ceiling.

“Move up the bed,” he said, pausing reluctantly. “Back against the headboard.”

Randy skittered back, settling quickly and comfortably on the pillows, feet on the bed and knees open wide, before asking why.

“I can see your face better this way.” Gale crawled up between his legs and into position, resting on his elbows, arms wrapped around Randy’s thighs. “And I _will_ see your face when you come. I promised myself that.”

Then Randy’s hand was deep in Gale’s hair, his dick deep in Gale’s mouth, and he felt like he had fallen into one of his favorite and most persistent dreams. The feelings washing over him, pulsing through, were too amazing and had been imagined too long to be real now. Colors undulated like a lava lamp beneath tightly shut eyelids and left him blinking when he opened them. He was really there. Gale, between Randy’s legs, face buried in his crotch, cheeks distended from and drawn concave around a mouthful of cock. And eyes that were serious about not missing a second of how Randy’s pleasure played out, fixed on him.

Randy knew he couldn’t look at Gale for long before he lost control, so he let his eyes flutter closed again. Then came licking, laving of his balls, and he reached blindly, wanting Gale’s cock in his hand, wanting to make him feel some of what he was, but he was too far away. Instead, Randy found smooth shoulder blade and followed the path down the muscular arm, to the hand that was scraping lightly over his nipples, lacing fingers and joining in.

He didn’t mean to fuck Gale’s mouth… wasn’t aware of his raised hips and increasingly less shallow upward thrusts… and he felt bad when he heard the faint choking sound. But he couldn’t apologize or even pull back before Gale’s hands were under his round ass, squeezing and pushing Randy more surely into his throat.

“Gale… oh God… I have to…”

Gale allowed Randy’s retreat this time, only to hold his dick against his jaw, hand still jacking vigorously, and let the warm spurts of cum land on his face. He tasted him, running hands all over the shuddering body, kissing the open mouth.

“You’re even more beautiful like that,” Gale whispered, and Randy’s tongue bathed his cheek, his chin, his lips in thanks.

He could feel Gale’s cock, hard and bare, pressed to his own, now spent. Realizing the man must have wriggled out of his underwear while blowing him, and brushing a hand over his naked ass to illustrate the point, Randy raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t want to risk coming in my shorts this time,” Gale grinned… though he was so hard, Randy thought it had to be more of a grimace.

“You looking for a better place?” Randy reached over, into the bedside table, and pulled out a condom and small bottle of lube. Gale leaned back and watched, curling his hands into fists of concentration, as Randy slowly opened the packet and rolled the condom onto him, handing him the lube. Then Randy lay back, bringing his knees up to his shoulders. “ _Come_ here.”

Gale had wanted to kiss and lick, smell and taste every inch of Randy’s gorgeous form. Explore him thoroughly, for his own enjoyment, and for Randy… to let him know he was enough. Good God, if he wasn’t, Gale was sure _“enough”_ would kill him.

But his need for Randy was so strong that all further thoughts of slow torture were flying out the window. He needed him _now_ … to fuck or be fucked by, Gale wasn’t sure he cared… although with Randy under him, hole exposed and feet hooked behind his back, he could swear he already felt that ass surrounding him.

He drizzled lube generously over two fingers, sure it had to be warming quickly just from the heat coming off him and Randy, and painted a thin coat over the pink flesh of Randy’s crack. His middle finger nudged the sweet opening, entering smoothly past the tight muscle ring… applying pressure and a more copious coating of the slick jelly, which was enough to work in the index as well. A minute or two of gentle finger-fucking and Randy, though the words were indecipherable, began unmistakably begging. For a usual top, he was certainly eager, and flexible as all hell. His legs slid higher, up over Gale’s shoulders, who quickly replaced fingers with cock… and pushed inside.

Even more exquisite… and paralyzing… than he remembered, Gale let himself fall forward onto Randy’s chest. He couldn’t move much in him from this position… wasn’t allowed much power or depth in his thrusts… but they were face to face, finally, and he had to take advantage of that, kissing the pillowy lips and gathering himself.

“Gale…”

“Hmm?” he managed, nuzzling Randy’s fucking adorable nose, trying to steady his breathing.

“I’m yours, too.” His hand caressed sweat and sinew, rubbing Gale’s back, as his voice turned from reverent to mischievous, looking down the sliver of space between their bodies to where they were joined. “If you couldn’t tell.”

After that, neither could hold anything back anymore. One more crushing kiss, and Gale was up on his knees and holding the backs of Randy’s, thumbs sliding over damp skin as he pulled out and slammed into him. Randy moaned and Gale did it again… and again… and again. He didn’t think he’d ever been a selfish lover, but he also knew he’d never gotten so much pleasure out of giving pleasure to another person in his life. An unbelievable rush charged his bones and breezed through his blood, intensifying the sights and sounds of Randy, making Gale fuck him harder, faster. He took Randy’s cock in a wicked grip, trying in vain to make it as tight and heavenly hot as it felt inside…

“Fuck, yes… right t-there… unh… ah… mm…”

Gale thought the vocal reaction was to the work of his hand, but the rhythm of the facial reactions… the way his forehead scrunched and relaxed, how Randy chewed his lip and the lining of his cheek… as he drove deep, as deep as he could reach, told him he’d found the place inside that would send him… both of them… over the edge. Gale held onto Randy’s elbows, splayed out to his sides, and lowered himself… too close to completion to even laugh at the fact that he was… what his dick was doing, notwithstanding… in the girls’ pushup position. He just crashed his face into his lover’s neck, licking the salt up to his ear… trying to hit the magic spot with every thrust and rub across the abandoned cock at the same time . Heels dug into his back, Randy taking and giving him everything. And then giving more, as Gale felt himself spread and just the tap of a finger on his own hole… not entering, just tapping… one, two, three…

Every part of Randy burned… outside, inside… his lips, his thighs, his ass, his consciousness. And then Gale set the fire on fire, everything just becoming more. And Randy clenched and arched and shook under him… shouting out and legs squeezing Gale in a deathgrip. And then Gale was coming, too, all rumble and roar… the only coherent thought he was capable of that he might actually die from pure pleasure, because this… Randy… was so far beyond _enough_.

Collapsed, heavy, molten and melded into one, they lay. Randy stroked sweaty hair and blew cool air on the back of the golden neck. He tried to tighten to hold Gale inside him, but Gale wasn’t going anywhere. He moved only enough to gather and spread a handful of Randy’s cum lovingly over his chest, and then provide the slowest, sweetest cleanup in the form of tiny kisses.

For someone who’d had some major reservations about fucking another man just over a month earlier, it occurred to Gale that it was remarkably easy to imagine fucking _this_ man… possibly forever.

*****

“I know it can’t be easy. You don’t have to pretend it is. You were together a long time.”

“I have to talk to her.”

“I know. It’s okay.”

“Just to get some things out. End it properly. I owe her that much.” Gale pulled the cool sheets around their decidedly warm bodies and wrapped Randy tighter in his arms. They were both ready for sleep, but somehow the question of the next day had come up, and he didn’t want Randy to worry. “Besides, there’s still the play to deal with.”

“Oh, God.” Randy blanched. He hadn’t forgotten about the play, of course… except maybe for the last couple of hours. “I know she’s a professional, and so am I, but this could be really uncomfortable.” He raised his head from Gale’s shoulder. “Be glad you don’t have to be up on that stage!”

Gale smiled weirdly. “Yeah… about that…”

*****

Randy had joked before dropping Gale off that he’d better hope Dylan let him in, but he realized on the doorstep that it wasn’t at all out of the realm of possibility that she wouldn’t. He’d given her his keys… all of them. He had a fucking spare, but it was… oh yeah, in the house. That was helpful.

He knocked “shave and a haircut” on the door out of habit, but left off the “two bits”… as it really wasn’t the time for fucking whimsy.

“Dylan, it’s me! Open up!” He knocked again, waited, heard nothing, but he knew she was home. Both his truck and her car were there, so either she was out on a run, or she was…

The door swung open suddenly and Gale’s gut twisted. She almost didn’t look like herself. Always so put together, her eyes were red and dark hair messy. He hadn’t seen her like this since her dad died. As she turned around and walked silently into the house, leaving him to follow, he was distracted from her appearance to that of the space around them. _Shit._

The place was completely trashed… lamp broken, books and CD’s knocked off shelves, chairs turned over… even the glass in the frame of his birthday present was shattered, though the photograph itself seemed okay. There was a pile of his clothes in an open suitcase on the couch, and one of the walls bore a dried but fragrant stain. Before she even spoke, it was obvious she was drunk. Not even hung over, because you have to stop drinking for that.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” she slurred, then bubbled over with an angry laugh. “I said that before… I called him that and you got mad… acted like I was crazy or wrong for saying it, but it was true!”

Gale couldn’t decide if he should bother to assure her that nothing she hadn’t initiated had happened between him and Randy at that point or not, so he just let her keep venting.

“I _knew_! The three of us would get together, and it was s’posed to be for us, for you and me, but it wasn’t, was it? It got to the point you were, you were _so_ into him, it was like I wasn’t even fucking there! Do you know how humiliating that is?”

Gale sighed, far from without guilt. He felt like shit that she was hurting like this. “Dylan…” He tried to take her hand, but she took a wobbly step back.

“GALE!” she shouted at him. Something that made her feel very clever through the alcohol haze permeated her brain, and she said his name again, drawn out and only slightly less loudly. “Gaaaale.” She giggled. “ _Gay_ -le… Fuck, I should have known! It was right there in your name!”

He silently swallowed the sick feeling her laughing words brought. Like he’d never heard _those_ jokes as a kid.

“You even found a girlfriend with a boy’s name! Why couldn’t you just admit what you really wanted all along?”

He couldn’t deal with her like this, so he started walking around the house, gathering some of his things… toothbrush, shaving kit… some money stashed in a drawer… a few favorite CD’s that had survived. She didn’t follow him but kept yelling.

“It wasn’t how it was s’posed to go! The girl brings in the other guy and her guy doesn’t want to do it but he does it for her… He fucks the guy but he’s always focused on _her_ … and he never kisses the guy, _ever_ , it just doesn’t happen…”

Gale dumped an armful of essentials on top of the pile of clothes on the couch and marched to stand in front of her. “Dylan, shut up. I love you, but I swear to God, you’ve been brainwashed by porn movies like most girls get brainwashed by fucking fairytales! They’re not something you should base your life on!”

She looked like she might cry… or kill him… or both. “You love me _now_?”

“No, I always have. Like you love me. We never said it because we’re not _in_ love with each other. And saying it would have taken our relationship to a level we didn’t really want it to go. That’s dangerous territory, and I think it was easy for us to be together because we knew we were safe from that.”

His words should have been making her feel better, but they were actually having the opposite effect. Whether it was said or not, she’d considered herself to be in love with Gale. She now suspected he was right… and was devastated by it. Maybe she wasn’t capable…

“We used to be so hot for each other, though… didn’t we?” Some defense mechanism kicked in, switching her quickly into seduction mode rather than letting her cry anymore. “I remember when you couldn’t keep your hands off me.”

“Dylan, don’t do this.”

“I still affect you, don’t I, Gale?” She maneuvered herself closer and closer, until she was practically pressed to him. “Or has he ruined that, too?”

If her hand on his crotch wasn’t enough to make him jump back from her… and it was… the added mention of Randy certainly did it. He shook his head sadly at her and walked to the suitcase, attempting to close it.

“He has,” she muttered, almost disbelieving, then exploded with rage. “That fucking little fairy! He was trying to steal you from me from the start! He…”

Gale whipped around. “Don’t fucking tell me you are trying to blame this on Randy! You started this whole thing, Dylan! You can’t suddenly play the victim because it didn’t turn out the way you planned!” Finally obtaining a satisfying _click_ , he picked up his bag and headed to the door. “I really do care about you, Dylan, but… you invited the fire, and now you’re blaming the burn… and that is fucked.”

Thankfully, his keys were waiting on the table next to the door. He picked them up, then watched her sink down onto the slightly indented sofa cushion, tossing out a soft entreaty before leaving.

“Please don’t drink anymore.”

She heard the door close and curled herself around a large pillow, knowing the past year of her life had come to its official end… knowing Gale was going to _him_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dylan, Dylan, Dylan. She watched too much of one certain type of bi porn. Not by any means representative. Poor disillusioned bitch, lol.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Opening night, the audience gets more than they bargained for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The play, "Dangerous Angels," is by Scott C. Sickles.

  


Randy hurried to the door’s timid knock, ashamed of his relief at spying the tall, rumpled figure through the peephole. He hadn’t really doubted Gale would return, but he couldn’t deny he’d been a little nervous about him going to see Dylan.

“Hey,” said Gale, unconsciously swinging his bag behind his legs when the door opened. “Uh… I’m not sure about where I parked… maybe I should…”

“Why are you hiding your suitcase?”

“I’m… not, I just… don’t want to presume…”

Randy stepped closer and hushed him with lips on his. “Gale, I’d want you here even if you didn’t want to be. But it would make me really happy if you did… Do you?”

Gale smiled for the first time since leaving the apartment two hours earlier. “Yeah, I do.”

Randy reached behind Gale, walking fingers down his backside, his wrist, taking the suitcase and setting it down inside the doorway. Then he grabbed hold of a belt loop on the man’s jeans and pulled him inside. “C’mon.”

*****

After _celebrating_ their new living arrangements, and a couple hours of post-orgasmic dozing, Gale woke to the sound of a small motor… and something soft batting against his face. He opened one eye.

“Rand, why is there a fucking cat on my head?”

“She’s saying hello.” Randy tried not to laugh too hard… but they were so cute. He’d been awake watching them for a while. “You’re not allergic, are you?”

“It’d be a little late if I was,” Gale pretended to grumble. “I keep getting that thing’s tail in my eye.”

“Come here, baby,” Randy murmured, patting his sheet-draped lap.

“Which one of us are you talking to?” Gale grinned sleepily.

“For now, the cat.” The purring ball of fur in question showed no inclination to move, so Randy carefully extricated it from Gale’s pillow… and one paw from Gale’s head… and took it into his arms. “That _thing_? Do you not like them?”

“Cats? Nah, they’re cool. They’re loners… for the most part,” he amended, rubbing a hand over his hair, still warm. “I respect that.”

“Her name’s Allie.”

“Nice to meet you, Allie.” Gale gave it a little scritch under the chin. “Ah, like alley cat? Cute.” He gave Randy a matching scritch and a teasing smile. “Look at you. I didn’t think you liked pussy.”

“You are _so_ funny.” He tickled Gale’s knee with his toes and made them both laugh.

“Did you have a cat last night?” Gale hadn’t seen one… though, now that he thought of it, he had wondered why there was an empty bowl on the floor in Randy’s kitchen.

“Yes. You were a stranger in her home, so she was hiding. But I guess once you’ve seen somebody walk naked to the bathroom, there’s a certain familiarity,” Randy giggled. “She’s claimed you now.”

“Somebody should tell her you already did that.”

Randy paused at the sweet realization that Gale was happily claimed by him. He felt so fucking lucky. Allie slipped through his loosened arms to jump over Gale, to the edge of the bed, and he draped himself over top of the beautiful, naked man… who wasn’t leaving.

Gale nudged the cat gently to jump to the floor, before sucking Randy’s earlobe into his mouth, whispering, “And tell her there’s no girls allowed in our bed anymore.”

*****

When they finally dragged themselves out of bed, Gale shocked Randy by suggesting they go visit Holly in the hospital.

“I got a voice mail from her husband. She was supposed to have her labor induced today, but the baby decided to get the party started last night. Girl, born early this morning.”

“That’s great. Um, I have to go to work, though.”

“Not until six. We can stop on the way and then I’ll drop you off.”

“Won’t there be a lot of people there? Other people from the theatre, visiting?”

“Probably.”

“And you want us to go… together?”

“You can take your own car if you want, but it seems like a waste of gas.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“I know. C’mon.”

Randy didn’t know Holly very well… by the time he’d come along, she was already having to pull back from her duties at Serendipity… but Gale knew that wasn’t why Randy offered to wait in the truck or in the hall while he visited her. He was sure Gale couldn’t really be okay with friends of his… people who knew him as Dylan’s boyfriend, knew him as straight… seeing them come in together. Gale also knew that if he came in with him, Randy would be convinced whoever was in there could see the change in their relationship and would probably stand ten feet away from him the whole time, to “protect” him.

Which is why Gale took his hand, fingers firmly laced, before they entered the room. And didn’t let him go.

*****

“I told you Dylan wouldn’t be there. Even if she’s sober, she’s not crazy about babies. And Holly’s not that crazy about her.”

Holly’s husband and sister had been there, but the only member of their theatre family present had been Carolyn Adams, Randy’s _other_ female castmate. They had all, almost certainly, gotten the message Gale and Randy were sending, but they were either too occupied with cooing over the baby to care, or they just didn’t.

The beaming new mother, however, had beckoned Gale to lean close and whispered in his ear that he had traded up.

“You were right, Gale. It was fun. But…”

“What?”

“I wouldn’t have expected it to, but… the sight of you holding that baby just made me want to… jump you.”

“You need a reason?”

“No. But you looked… really good. I wish I didn’t have to go to work.”

“You want me to write you a note? _‘Please excuse Randy from the bookstore because we have lost one-on-one fucking time to make up’_?”

“Would you?”

“It’s only four hours. I’ve got some… _studying_ to do, anyway.”

“I could help you.”

“Before or after you jump me?”

“Good point. Okay, I’ll go. But… could you just answer me something first?”

“I’ll try.”

“How are you okay with all this?” Gale just looked at him, like he knew what he meant but was waiting for him to say it. “”How are you so okay with everything that’s happened? How are you not uncomfortable with everybody knowing you’re with me? How have you not freaked out once?”

“Do you want me to freak out?”

“No, but… yes… if you need to. Your life has changed pretty dramatically overnight. Not just the last year of your life, but basically everything you’ve ever known. It would be natural…”

Gale shook his head and gestured towards the shop. “Rand, have you been reading some book in there called _How To Help Your Straight Boyfriend Through His Coming Out_ or something?”

There was too much in that question for Randy to even respond to. But he picked out his favorite part.

“Boyfriend?”

Gale smiled and dipped his head for a second, the moment of shyness the only acknowledgement of that word, before going on. “Okay, two things… First, except for my address, you know nothing was overnight. My life started changing from day one of you being in it. I just finally gave in. Maybe it hasn’t all caught up to me yet, maybe I’ll freak the fuck out tomorrow, but I don’t think so. I’m… fucking _happy_. And second, I don’t know what all this means about me, except that I want to be with you. But that’s all I need to know. What about you?”

“Hmm… I think, yeah… I think that works for me… and my boyfriend.”

Gale’s laughter bubbled against soft lips as Randy kissed him, and he smacked his delicious rear as it wiggled its way out of the truck.

*****

“Oh my God.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“Oh my _God_ , yes, it was!”

“Yeah, maybe it was.”

“Gale, I’ve been a part of many shows, and many less than perfect run-throughs, and that was easily _the_ most disastrous dress rehearsal _ever_. Everything went wrong!”

“Is this called _queening out_?”

“Oh, shut up.”

Randy wasn’t exaggerating. Even with no sets to fall down, it had still been a total Murphy’s Law situation… lines forgotten, cues missed, costumes accidentally stepped on and ripped (Randy hadn’t been as guilty as others of the first two, but Carolyn’s dress was completely the fault of his foot). Not to mention the insane amount of tension in the air between Randy and Dylan (and Gale, even mostly from a distance, operating the lights… the one element of the production that had run smoothly). She’d been sober, at least, but it hadn’t really helped. Seemed it had just added sharpness and clarity to the edges of her anger. She hadn’t said anything… not wanting to call attention to their situation… but if looks could kill, Randy would have died about fifty times. The “comforting embrace” scene had been so beyond awkward… closer to scary… it was almost comical. And Travis had been in a weird mood all day, even before the suck-fest commenced.

“You should have been up there, having to deal with all that with me,” Randy mumbled tiredly, experiencing a much better version of a comforting embrace, curled up on his… _their_ couch. “Why weren’t you?”

“I’m just an understudy. We would have had to run everything twice. Would you have liked that tonight? _More_ of the worst dress rehearsal ever?” Gale felt vehement head shaking against his chest and laughed softly, fingers sifting through silky, short hair.

“NO… fuck, no… It’s just so frustrating. Two weeks ago, we were ready. Now that the play opens tomorrow…” He raised his head, at a loss. “It’s just… bad. And the Dylan issues, I feel I should be able to control.”

“You’re amazing, but not all-powerful, Rand. Just think of the saying… _a bad dress rehearsal means a great show_? Something like that?”

“Then tomorrow could be the greatest performance of a play ever given. I’d better clear space for the awards that will surely start pouring in.”

*****

__

The next morning, day of the show…

__

“Fuck… shit…”

Randy walked out of the bathroom, rubbing a towel over his hair. “I thought you were going to join me in the shower.”

“Fuck, shit, and fuck some more!”

“O- _kay_ ,” he laughed, then realized how genuinely stressed Gale looked. “Hey, what is it?”

“I have to go on for Booker tonight.”

“Seriously? Why? What happened?”

“He just called. I think he said something about catching a plane, his brother, surgery maybe…? Fuck if I know.” He stopped at Randy’s amusedly shocked face. “Yeah, I know that sounds cold, but I can’t help it. I pretty much blacked out after he said, ‘You’re gonna have to fill in for me, Gale.’ I didn’t think this was actually gonna come up, not this fast.”

“This is so great, though! I mean, not for Booker or his brother, but… you get to go on! You get to _act_ , like you’ve wanted to for so long. Everybody gets to see how good you are.” He walked closer and looped his arms around Gale’s hips, silencing the self-deprecating snicker. “And we get to do this together.”

There was such joy, such pride in him shining in Randy’s eyes. He didn’t want to make it go away, but… “You and me… and Dylan… all sharing the same stage.”

“Shit.” Randy’s face fell, thinking of the previous night’s train wreck… times a thousand. But, with Gale now so worried, he forced some optimism and even managed a genuine smile. “Life is full of surprises, right? But sometimes you get lucky… and they work out better than you could have dreamed.”

Gale rested his fingers just inside the waistband of Randy’s sweatpants, happily distracted for the moment by the warm skin of the best surprise his life had ever gotten.

*****

__

Serendipity Theatre, backstage, 10 minutes to “curtain up”…

__

“It’s good that you skipped shaving the last few days. Looks better for playing an old guy.” Randy touched Gale’s jaw and felt the soft scratch.

“ _Ty_ is maybe ten years older than me, Rand, you better watch it,” he muttered, skimming over a script.

“You think you’ve got your lines down?”

“Yeah,” Gale said simply, and Randy knew that he did.

“Someone who smokes as much pot as you should not have such a good memory.”

“I’m just special.”

“That’s a good word for it.”

Randy watched Gale sneak a peek at the light booth from their spot in the wings, knowing he felt bad about abandoning his post there. But Holly’s husband, Jerry… who apparently knew almost as much as she did about how everything worked… was filling in, along with another tech, Eric.

“They’ll be fine. You’ll be fine.” He gave Gale’s back a soothing rub. “Can you see? Sounds like it’s getting crowded out there.”

“It’s a packed house, boys.”

Gale and Randy turned at the sound of her voice… Dylan, standing there in costume, cheeks dramatically rouged… teetering on her heels.

“Carolyn told me, Travis told me, but I didn’t believe it,” she said, looking at Gale… the slight salt and pepper sprayed in his hair to make him appear older. “You keep throwing me for a loop, don’t you, babe?”

The men caught each other’s eyes, both silently expressing the same thought… _Shit, she’s drunk._

“I’m wearing my lucky heels, see?” She lifted her skirt unnecessarily high, twisting her feet to show off a pair of green pumps, before meeting their uneasy stares with a frightening smile. “Good luck, Randy! Good luck, Gale! Good luck, everyone!”

Randy’s mouth fell open and he grabbed Gale’s arm, whispering to him, “I thought she was really superstitious. Why would she say that?” Randy didn’t consider himself particularly a slave to superstition, but anyone involved in theatre knew those were the two words you _never_ uttered before a show.

“She is.” That was what worried Gale. But, before it could be properly interpreted or panicked over, Travis was calling “places!” and they were on… ready or not.

*****

Things were going okay for a while. Gale was a natural, Dylan was doing a great job of pretending to be sober, and Randy didn’t step on anybody’s dress.

Then, about halfway through, came the scene where Randy and Gale’s characters are sitting in chairs and talking, and Dylan’s and Carolyn’s are having a parallel conversation. Lines alternate and sometimes overlap in a way that is tricky to pull off, but important, because it is revealed that Randy and Dylan (as “Randy” and “Karen”) are having a marriage of convenience and, in fact, both are gay.

Gale spoke the line, “ _So, when Ben had the ridiculous notion she was marrying a gay guy…_ ”, to which… following a line from Carolyn to Dylan… Randy responded, “ _On the nose_.” Then, Gale and Carolyn, in unison… “ _Oh, God. So, do you think you’ll be happy together?_ ”

At that point, Randy and Dylan were supposed to reply in unison.

“ _I think so. We love and_ …” Randy stumbled slightly on the words, realizing he was the only one speaking them. But he recovered quickly and continued alone, which was really all he could do. “… _respect each other. We know each other better than anyone else knows us. Realistically, it’ll probably last longer than most other marriages._ ”

Gale couldn’t see her face, but he was hoping that slip had been just a forgotten couple of lines, as unlike Dylan as that seemed. But, before he and Carolyn could even begin their next bit of dialogue, everything on the stage was overtaken by giggles… rapid-building giggles, becoming loud and raucous and completely out of the character she was playing. Carolyn did her best to keep the scene going, calling her “Karen” and trying to make it work, bring her back, but it wasn’t happening. Dylan stood up and walked to the other side of the stage, to a horrified Gale and Randy.

“He’s gay?” she laughed, pointing at Randy. “Is that supposed to be a shocker?” She turned to face an audience twittering with nervous confusion… “Who here didn’t know that?”… and then back to Gale. “Shouldn’t _you_ be the one making the big gay confession? Why don’t you fuck him and show everybody?”

Several in the audience gasped, not so much because of what she was saying… they were in Ithaca, for crying out loud… but because she was saying it onstage, mid-play.

“I made him gay,” she announced, her speech beginning to both slur and harden with bitterness. “Took me nearly a year but I did it! I asked for it and burned myself and now where’s my thank you, Randy?”

“Dylan, don’t do this,” said Gale in a low voice. “I know how important this play is to you…”

“I know! I did that, too… ‘cause I’m talented. I ruined the play, ruined us, your birthday… Hey you know what I did? What else?” Gale just shook his head sadly. “I wanted somebody to want me again… like you used to even if we weren’t right… like you wanted _him_. But somebody did… want me. I didn’t stay at some woman’s house. After the acting workshop I had dinner with Travis… and I had sex with him… at his house.”

It was the most surreal experience Randy had ever had onstage. Bright lights and nervous coughs… a random “Oh my God”… Carolyn’s frantic whisper to Tom, “What should we do?”… and the swaying silhouette of his leading lady, breaking down and dropping bombshells. He fixed his eyes on Gale’s. He could feel how uncomfortable he was, could see surprise… but mostly just concern as Gale stood up to face her.

“I’m sorry it hurt you, Dylan. But, no matter how it happened, I need him.”

Randy stood at his words and connected their hands.

“Dylan, honey…” And then Travis was there, putting an arm around her, taking her gently by the elbow. “Let’s go, okay? You need some rest.”

He gave Gale a look of nervous apology, to which Gale shook his head and said, “Take care of her.”

“Oh my God, Travis.” It was like she had just fully absorbed her surroundings and the horror of the moment. “Get me out of here… please.” She hid her face in his shoulder, and he walked her off the stage and into safety.

After a stunned silence, Tom, the senior member of the group, stepped forward to bullshit some kind of apology or explanation to the poor audience. Randy and Gale didn’t really hear it. Obvious that the show would _not_ go on, Randy ran off and Gale followed.

*****

Gale started to turn his key in the truck’s ignition, but stopped when Randy spoke.

“I’m sorry.” His eyes were watery and looking down.

“Why are you sorry?”

“I kind of suspected something was going on with Dylan and Travis. I mean, not for long, but I thought it. I just figured I was imagining it, or seeing what I wanted to see because I wanted you two to split up. I should have said something to you.”

“Rand, come here.”

Gale stretched his arm out, and Randy slid across the leather seat and into his embrace.

“Gale, I should be comforting you. You’re the one who got outed in front of the whole town and found out your girlfriend’s sleeping with her director.”

“I’m okay. Everything she said had to be hard for you to take, too.” He softly raked fingertips over Randy’s scalp, feeling the tension in his body… and knew exactly what it was about. “You’re mostly just upset the play got ruined, aren’t you?”

“Yes!” Randy pulled back a little, just enough to properly go off. “God, I hate that she did that to you, I hate that I _almost_ feel bad for her, but I really hate that she fucking killed the play! I’m sure she’ll hate herself even worse, but I don’t care! I say, _good_! I just… we couldn’t even finish, and everyone worked so hard, and it’s like betraying the characters…”

Gale looked like he was about to start laughing, and Randy expected some comment about him _queening_ again. What he didn’t expect was…

“See, this is why I love you.”

Randy froze mid-rant. “What?”

Gale was grinning now, enjoying the cute, flustered expression on Randy’s face. “Are you waiting for me to take it back? I’m not going to. In fact, let me clarify… I am fucking crazy _in_ love with you, Rand.”

He wasn’t sure he was breathing anymore, but he knew he was smiling. He could see it reflected in shiny hazel, so open and so fucking true.

“Then it was all worth it, wasn’t it?”

Randy wrapped his hand around Gale’s chin… giggling slightly at the manufactured gray in the facial hair… and brought their mouths together for a kiss… spine-tingling… celebrational… deep, then light ones, raining on lips, smacking delightfully.

“You were… already… fucking crazy,” Randy declared in pieces between kisses, then rested their foreheads together. “But… I’m in love with you, too.”

It was the first time in a long time Gale had heard those words, and the first time he had ever believed them. He held him tighter. “Good. Now can we go home and…”

Randy slipped his hand between Gale’s legs and squeezed, eliciting a gasp and a gentle, self-preserving shove away. Randy gave in and scooted back to his seat.

“That, too, Rand. But I was gonna say ‘wash this stuff off my face’?”

“Oh, I know. Here…” He opened the glove compartment, pretty sure he remembered a pack of tissues being in there… seeking one for Gale’s face and one for his own, subtly tearstained. Lifting the NY map, and smiling at the memory of their trip, he was distracted from his search by a discovery. “Gale…?”

Gale looked proudly at the keepsake he’d kept close… the #1 candle, held in Randy’s hand. “Yeah?”

Randy curled his fingers around the wax, thinking that it had made more than one wish come true. “Let’s go home.”


	13. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gale and Randy's happy ending and how they got there. Jumps forward a year.

  
July 10, 2001

“What’s this new tradition you’ve come up with?”

“Well, since on your last birthday, we couldn’t kiss… every birthday from now on, however old you are, that’s how long we’re going to kiss.”

“So, you’re gonna kiss me for thirty-two seconds?”

“Not much of a party, is it? That’s us every day. No. Thirty-two _minutes_ … no coming up for air.”

“Sounds dangerous, Rand.”

“Mm hmm. You ready?”

“Hell yes. We’ll use the watch you got me. Ready, set… c’mere you…”

*****

The show did go on, eventually. Carolyn’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Beverly… who’d been reading lines with her mom for weeks… was able to fill in for Dylan for the rest of that weekend’s performances. By the next and final weekend, Dylan had pulled herself together, fiercely determined to prove herself to the theatre once more. Booker had also returned by that time (his brother was okay), so Dylan, Randy, and Gale never had to all be onstage at the same time again. She and Randy were able to work together… and she and Gale even managed a good talk, putting an awkward but respectful sense of closure on their relationship.

Dylan and Travis had apparently shared a real connection and made a go of their relationship for a while. Although, Gale and Randy didn’t know what happened to them when Dylan moved to Los Angeles to try her hand at film and TV. The biggest significance of her move had been the selling of the house. Ownership had been completely hers (she lived pretty comfortably through inherited money), but she’d decided it was only fair to cut Gale a check for the difference his renovations had made in the price of the house. The amount had been… substantial, and while he thought of not accepting, eventually he took it. He knew it was her way of making peace, and he also knew exactly what he wanted to do with it.

Funded by the combination of that and their own savings, within another month or two, Gale and Randy were living in New York City, in an apartment that was _theirs_. It was small, and rent was ridiculous, but they were there and they were together.

Now… a year after the most disastrous non-performance of a play he’s ever been a part of… Randy has done two off-Broadway shows and two Broadway, including one musical, and garnered excellent reviews. Gale’s done some acting, too… a play, an episode of “ _Law & Order_”… but he’s also starting to get into photography as more than just a hobby. Randy tells him all the time to stop wasting all his film on _him_ , but he is by far Gale’s most inspiring subject.

Gale jokes that he only started doing the photography because, as Dylan said, “ _Two actors in a relationship never works_.”

Gale doesn’t talk to her anymore, but they do see her occasionally… on their TV screen. They haven’t seen her in anything big yet, but one time they were flipping channels and landed on her, grinning unnaturally in some infomercial for “ _Love Metal Ballads of the Early 90’s_ ,” or something like that. They really do hope she ends up getting better work, because she is very talented.

They still laughed. But then she had led to this conversation…

“ _I guess I’ll always feel a little indebted to Dylan. Not because of the check, but because… you know, without her freaky ways, you and I might never have gotten so, uh… close.”_

 _“Yes, we would have.”_

 _“We would?”_

 _“Gale, it wasn’t Dylan. It was… God, or the universe, or fate. We were meant to meet and be together, and it would have happened, even if it had been a different way.”_

 _“Okay, Mr. Fate. Tell me how.”_

 _“We might have met in Georgia.”_

 _“Let me guess… when I was eighteen and you were ten? First comes love, then comes prison…”_

 _“Shut up. I’m just naming possibilities… Maybe someone else in your life would have encouraged you to act, and we’d have met on an audition.”_

 _“Maybe.”_

 _“Maybe even on a job… playing love interests.”_

 _“……Yeah right, Rand, like that would ever happen.”_

 _“Well, I will admit… without the nympho girlfriend bringing us together in such a unique way… making you face your overpowering carnal need for me nearly from the start… who knows how long you would have been in denial? We might have gotten stuck in ‘just friends’ mode.”_

 _“Then I’m glad the universe chose to do it this way… where we fucking have it all.”_

*****

For Randy and Gale, the difficult part of kissing for thirty-two minutes certainly isn’t boredom. It’s not even breathing. It’s _only_ kissing… not doing anything more than that. They manage somehow, but as soon as the little beeping sound sets them free, clothes start flying.

Then the phone rings.

“We don’t want any,” Gale grumbles, proceeding to ignore. But Randy manages to sneak a peek at the caller ID.

“It’s your mother.”

“Fuck!” he yells this time, frustrated. “I know she gave me life, but can’t I talk to her tomorrow?”

“Hang on.” Randy grins, picking up the receiver. “Mrs. Harold? Yes, this is Randy… Sorry about that, but Gale’s busy right now… Yes, I know I ruined your son’s chances for a good Christian marriage… But hey, aren’t you at least happy the chance for grandchildren isn’t out the window?… I _mean_ , that’s what he’s busy with. Your son’s going to get me pregnant tonight or die trying… Are you all right? You should rest, Mrs. Harold, you sound tired. Happy Gale’s birthday!” He hangs up, and Gale lets loose his cackling.

“I’m gonna get you _pregnant_??”

“I just like to fuck with her head… She does know it doesn’t work like that, right?”

The thing is… while neither is interested in marriage, they have recently begun to discuss options for having a child. Randy knew early on that he wanted to get to see Gale be a dad, but he surprised himself by how much he started wanting to do it with him. Despite his maturity, though, Randy’s still pretty young… only twenty-three… so they’re taking it slow.

“There’s no telling,” Gale says, still laughing. “I’m just glad your mom adores me.”

“You make her son happy. Of course she does.” Randy crawls back into Gale’s arms. “And I choose not to tell her some of the more unsavory details about you… such as your lingering fondness for breasts.”

Randy likes to tease his partner about his days as a heterosexual, and his inability to be categorized now. He even straddles Gale sometimes and holds up pictures of different celebrities or models, both female and male, and playfully makes him confess which ones he is attracted to. Gale’s tastes can fall on either side, but Randy knows better (at least most days) than to be insecure. He knows it’s only ever the two of them in their bed. That was such an important place for them to get to in their relationship, and they’ll never go back.

“You know I love your tits best, Rand.” With that, Gale flips him on his back and starts biting the little circles of flesh.

“Ahh… okay, okay.” Randy rolls them over again. “Now find me a Chapstick, and I’ll give you your birthday blow job.” Kissing for thirty-two minutes can really chap your lips.

“Then what?”

“Greedy, aren’t we? What do you want?”

“I want you to fuck me.”

“That could be arranged.”

“Then, if I can move after that, I want to… dance with you… while you sing to me.”

“You want to dance??… Not to ‘ _Happy Birthday_ ’?”

“Nope.”

“‘ _After the fire, after all the rain… I will be the flame_ ’?”

“Yeah.”

“I can do that.”

“However far I had left to fall a year ago today, I fell that moment… you fucker.”

“I love you, too, Gale.”

“Love you, Rand.”


End file.
